By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — When the Kings Highway Elementary School chorus performs next March, even parents at the back of the auditorium can expect to clearly hear the young voices.

That’s thanks to a $20,429.50 gift from the school’s PTA that will be used to replace the auditorium sound system.

It was one of two gifts accepted unanimously by the Board of Education at a meeting held last week at Staples High School.

The board also accepted booster club gifts that will pay for assistant coaches for the Staples High School boys basketball and boys indoor track teams.

As for the Kings Highway gift, PTA Co-presidents Arielle Leighton and Christina Royce, along with Principal Tracey Carbone, told the school board the benefits of the upgraded sound system.

The equipment from Performance Audio Inc. will give students and staff better functionality and performance quality for instruction, school assemblies, concerts and theatrical performances, they said.

“We are really excited about this project,” Leighton said.

Board Chair Lee Goldstein called the gift a lot of money for the PTA to raise, adding that the board was grateful.

Carbone said the hope is that the new sound system can be installed by the spring.

Clubs boost Staples athletics

Athletic Director VJ Sarullo said the combined $5,267 gift will help ensure the safety and proper supervision required because of high participation rates.

The school district already funds one head coach and three assistant coaches in the boys basketball program, which has a total of 74 players. 

Boys track also has one head coach and three assistant coaches funded by the district. In all, 85 boys participate in track during winter.

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.