By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — Municipal budget-crafting season may be months away, but the Board of Education voted Thursday to ask the town to approve more than $1.3 million to fund a dozen projects related to security, air quality and the Staples auditorium stage rigging and lighting.

The spending request is in keeping with the school district’s new capital funding request schedule, which will allow officials to plan for work to be completed next summer. It also would separate the capital request from the operating budget approval process for the 2024-25 fiscal year. The current education operating budget is roughly $144.3 million.

The capital proposal will go to the Board of Finance on Oct. 4 and the Representative Town Meeting in November.

Most of the projects are part of the district’s 10-year capital forecast with some adjustments made with input from Collier Project Leaders, the district’s construction consultant.

The Staples stage work, for instance, coming it at $462,934, would address recently identified safety issues, Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice said in a memo to the board.

“Only safety issues,” Scarice said. “Any additional enhancements to the auditorium must be evaluated and recommended through a separate process.”

Since the work is scheduled for next summer, board Chairwoman Lee Goldstein asked how safe the rigging is in the interim.

Ted Hunyadi, director of facilities for the district, assured the board it is safe, but added it is old.

Also at Staples, the plan calls for flooring to be replaced in the field house at a cost of $120,359, an upgrade of pool pumps for nearly $22,000 and $15,500 worth of work in the IT room.

The plan would spend $80,000 to complete a security and accessibility evaluation of district schools started this year.

Other projects include unit ventilator replacement, retro-commissioning of HVAC systems and air conditioning units and insulated glass replacement.

“Most of these things are just things we need to do,” said board Vice Chairwoman Liz Heyer, chair of the board’s Finance and Facilities Committee.

In addition, the district has an outside firm evaluating building envelopes (windows, roofs, doors) and mechanical systems at five schools: Saugatuck, Kings Highway, Greens Farms, Bedford Middle and Staples High. The work continues with some data expected this winter.

Not included in the evaluation are Long Lots, which is to be renovated or replaced; Coleytown Middle, which recently was renovated, and Coleytown Elementary, evaluated for possible renovation or replacement.

In a separate action, the board accepted a $22,351 gift from the Kings Highway PTA to supplement federal American Rescue Plan Act funds used to create an outdoor learning center.

The PTA money will cover the cost of a change in flooring from the original design and increased costs. The space will be used for meetings, lessons, gatherings and activities during and outside school hours.

Freelance writer Linda Conner Lambeck, a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications, is a member of the Education Writers Association.