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School Resource Officers "Vital" Say School and Law Enforcement Officials
County Executive retreats on immediate cessation of funding, gives school districts until September 2009
by Margaret Sternberg
 | | Christopher Santoriello, a senior at Brewster High School, speaking in favor of the School Resource Officer (SRO) Program in front of an audience of 250 during the special meeting called by the County Legislature. |
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On April 14, 2008 hundreds attended a special meeting convened by the Putnam County Legislature in response to a public outcry after Putnam County Executive Bob Bondi proposed in his State of the County Address to make school districts that have a School Resource Officer pay 100 percent of their cost.
The School Resource Officer program started in 1995 and was initially funded by grants, which eventually ceased, leading some schools to discontinue the program because they could no longer afford to fund their portion of the cost. Cold Spring's Haldane discontinued its program in 2006, and Putnam Valley Middle School in 2003. The Putnam Valley High School still has one School Resource Officer, having discontinued funding for a second officer when its initial proposed budget was defeated for the 2006-7 school year.
Mr. Bondi has said that the County would save $336,610 through no longer paying 50 percent of the cost for the officers to be placed in the schools.
Legislature Chairman Tony Hay noted that the Legislature was not debating the merits of the program, saying its benefits "had never been called into question." Hay asked that the speakers address the question of whether school districts should pay for the SROs for the ten months of the school year and the County pay for the other two months, as the Garden Street School in Brewster does, or whether the County and the school districts should continue to share the costs equally. Most speakers did not address the funding issue and spoke to the merits of the program, giving the Legislature little guidance in the question it had asked.
Brewster Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jane Sandbank said that there had been "a marked reduction of trespass and no incidents of concern" at the Garden Street School, asking "How do you prove a benefit when the benefit is the absence of crime and incidents directly a result of our SRO program?" Sandbank commended the program for being not only a preventive and deterrent measure, but for being an intercedant at a time when children are most vulnerable.
Carmel Interim Superintendent Ron Wilson criticized the timing of Mr. Bondi's proposal, saying that Carmel had started their budget process in December and "to do this so late in the game is disadvantageous to the district." Wilson said that for the amount of money involved, it would be "virtually impossible" for the district to come up with the funding now. Had they known in advance, he said, they could have "investigated and taken another avenue." Wilson was one of several who appeared willing to consider fully funding the program, but resented the timing of the message. As far as the continuation of the program, Wilson put his feelings bluntly, "We need these services. The services can't go away; we have to have them."
Mahopac Superintendent Dr. Robert Reidy disagreed that it was a financial decision, saying "This is much more than a financial decision; this is a community decision - the school community decision, and a community at large decision…and one of protecting our most valuable resource, our children." Reidy bitterly criticized Mr. Bondi's method of letting the school districts know of the proposal to withdraw county funding through reading about it in the newspapers. "This is not how one treats one's partners."
Deputy County Executive John Tully spoke strictly to the financial issues. Tully implicitly questioned the worth of the service to the schools, noting that several schools, when faced with half of the cost of funding the program declined to fund it. Calling the program "a non-mandated service that school boards have the authority to fund, or not to fund." Tully also noted that no one had discussed the "actual costs" of the program, referring not only to salaries, but to administrative costs, benefits and retirement costs paid by the County. Tully said "All we're asking for is a little truth in budgeting; let's have the costs associated with the schools stay with the schools."
Sounding progressively more strident, Tully noted that county employees had not been given raises in recent years, contrasting that with yearly raises given to school district employees. Tully, like every other speaker, lauded the SRO program and its need, but suggested that school districts look to themselves to find funding.
Christopher Santoriello, a Brewster High School senior, rebuked an earlier speaker who had said only the schools benefit by the program, noting "The impact of our SRO's goes much farther than just our school district. It is truly every member in the community that is benefiting, and that falls under the jurisdiction of the County Legislature." Santoriello also noted a "fundamental difference" in budgeting, saying that a school budget can be defeated by taxpayers and opining that fact needed to be considered when deciding on the funding source. He said funding through the county ensures that the SRO's will stay in the schools. Santoriello said that he "feels safe" knowing the SRO is in his school.
Also speaking in favor of the program were Putnam County Sheriff Donald B. Smith, the Sheriff Department's Inspector General, Patrick Perry, and the head of the sheriff's deputies' union, Fred Mark.
Chairman Hay called the meeting "very informative," giving the County Executive "a better insight into what the public wants." Hay reminded the audience that this issues was one of many in which the legislature will be forced to make tough choices and said they will do "the best we can…"
In a subsequent interview with the PCN&R, Mr. Bondi defended the County's position, saying "We let every school district decide whether or not they value the position of SRO and they find it needed…Haldane and Garrison….do not use SROs…they do not rely upon the county to provide them; they do not ask the county to fund any of them." Mr. Bondi said it was "patently unfair for certain school districts to get this kind of aid, and others not to receive this assistance."
Mr. Bondi also noted the one Brewster school that pays 100 percent of the SRO's costs for 10-months of the year, with the county paying for the other two months and contrasted that with the fifty-fifty sharing of costs that the county has with the other school districts, concluding that "the practice is totally inconsistent around the county and totally unfair."
Mr. Bondi also leveled criticism at school districts, agreeing that children need protection, but pointing out that not all schools in all districts have SROs, implicitly blaming superintendents for not having SROs in every school building in their districts, sidestepping the direct question of funding, yet saying that "to expect the County of Putnam to supply funding for a program that is totally discretionary for children, at this point in county history, is not possible."
Mr. Bondi pointed to the recent county tax increases of 18.65 and 27 percent for the 2007 and 2008 budgets, contrasting those increases to state aid increases to schools for their 2008-9 budgets. (Carmel is the only Putnam County school district that has announced a tax rate cut from last year to this year.) He called it "unfair" to expect the County "which is going in the opposite direction with ever-larger tax increases due to reductions in state aid, to expect that we would now subsidize the school districts in the decisions that they are now required to make to protect their children."
Mr. Bondi noted that SROs are not provided to parochial schools within the county, and he iterated that it is not an issue of the County being callous toward the children, but of "who should be paying for services" at a time when the County is in financial straits.
Legislature Chairman Hay agreed with one aspect of the County Executive's position. Chairman Hay said "The tax burden has shifted to give substantial amounts of money to the schools at the expense of counties and other entities."
Mr. Bondi, who had not attended the meeting, responded in writing to at least one of the criticisms leveled at him. Two days following the meeting, contained in a press release, Mr. Bondi said that he will be sending a letter to school district superintendents informing them that the administrative budget will reflect a decrease in the County contribution to the SRO program beginning in September 2009. "This gives the school districts ample time to adjust their school budgets accordingly."
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