BOSTON – The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending more than $1 million to the State of Connecticut to reimburse the Town of Watertown for the cost of steps taken to safely open schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $1,095,330 FEMA Public Assistance grant will reimburse the town for the cost of contracting for temporary school nurses to provide screening and temperature scanning, and paying staff to provide daily cleaning and disinfection for the John Trumbull Primary School; Judson Elementary School; Polk Elementary School; Swift Middle School; Watertown High School; Watertown Transition Academy; St. Mary Magdalen; and St. John’s School between April 2020 and July 2022
“FEMA is pleased to be able to assist the Town of Watertown with these costs,” said FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich. “Providing resources for our institutions of higher education to combat the COVID-19 pandemic is critical to their success, and to our success as a nation.”
FEMA’s Public Assistance program is an essential source of funding for states and communities recovering from a federally declared disaster or emergency.
So far, FEMA has provided more than $669 million in Public Assistance grants to Connecticut to reimburse the state for pandemic-related expenses.