By Thane Grauel
WESTPORT — The Representative Town Meeting on Tuesday unanimously passed funding for modular classrooms to be installed outside the overcrowded Long Lots Elementary School.
But the funding wasn’t the Board of Education’s originally requested $600,000.
Instead, it was a $400,000 appropriation, which is estimated to cover installation costs and a two-year lease, rather than four.
Concerns hashed out by RTM committees last week included funding the modular request when a redistricting study may be near. Some wondered why money should be spent to provide more space at Long Lots when other schools might have room for students.
Last month, the full request squeaked by the Board of Education and Board of Finance with 4-3 votes.
Last week, the Finance and Education committees of the RTM, voted to recommend the full RTM approve just $400,000.
RTM member Lauren Karpf, District 7 and a Long Lots parent, weighed in.
“This appropriation has been difficult, and a long road,” Karpf said, backing up the Long Lots principal’s assessment of space conditions at an earlier hearing.
“This school is completely overcrowded today with 600 students,” Karpf said, detailing how special education teachers are crowded, music being taught in hallways and staffers eat lunch in their cars.
The vote was 30-0 in favor of the amendment trimming the appropriation to $400,000. Two members, Don O’Day, District 3, and Jay Keenan, District 2, abstained.
Thane Grauel, executive editor, grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond more than three decades. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.
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