POPLAR RIDGE -- The Southern Cayuga Central School District Board of Education wants to know what exactly is the point of a school resource officer.
During a board meeting on Monday evening lasting just under three hours, members asked district superintendent Mary Kay Worth to arrange a meeting with the supervisor of Deputy John Nedza, who works with the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office and is the district's SRO, to explain in detail the responsibilities and goals of a SRO.
"Is he here for security?" board member Jim Wilcox asked. "If so, we need a person here all the time when the school is open, if that's the reason. If not, why?"
The district is in the last year of a four-year contract with the sheriff's office providing an officer to provide law enforcement, disciplinary and student counseling services. The district is in the midst of negotiating a new contract.
"He's a resource, an educational piece," board member Teresa Reeves said. "It lends to safety and enhances safety."
"He's worth three times what he's been paid," she added.
While Southern Cayuga contracts with the sheriff's department, its district neighbor, Moravia Central Schools, is dealing with a different problem with its SRO.
Governor Eliot Spitzer proposed in his state budget last month, the elimination of the state police SRO program and the redeployment of its 92 troopers to Operation IMPACT, the state's inner-city crime reduction program, at the end of the academic year.
For more, read Tuesday's Citizen
"Is he here for security?" board member Jim Wilcox asked. "If so, we need a person here all the time when the school is open, if that's the reason. If not, why?"
The district is in the last year of a four-year contract with the sheriff's office providing an officer to provide law enforcement, disciplinary and student counseling services. The district is in the midst of negotiating a new contract.
"He's a resource, an educational piece," board member Teresa Reeves said. "It lends to safety and enhances safety."
"He's worth three times what he's been paid," she added.
While Southern Cayuga contracts with the sheriff's department, its district neighbor, Moravia Central Schools, is dealing with a different problem with its SRO.
Governor Eliot Spitzer proposed in his state budget last month, the elimination of the state police SRO program and the redeployment of its 92 troopers to Operation IMPACT, the state's inner-city crime reduction program, at the end of the academic year.
For more, read Tuesday's Citizen
