By Jason Emerson
Editor
In what is being called a “three-pronged approach” to improve school safety within the Cazenovia Central School District, the administration has proposed — and the board of education has supported — the hiring of a full-time School Safety Officer and a part-time Mental Health Coordinator, as well as the utilization of outside agency support for counseling, safety and mental health issues throughout the district’s three buildings.
With the school board’s support, given at the board’s July 5 annual reorganizational meeting, the district administration will now move forward to finalize the job descriptions of the new safety and mental health officials and begin the search and hiring process. Both positions will be funded out of the $100,000 budgeted for the 2018-19 school year and earmarked specifically for district safety and health programs and initiatives.
District Director of Special Education and Pupil Personnel Services Pat Ruddy presented the administration’s recommendations to the school board and said the proposals were the result of discussions between the administrative team, officials from other school districts, state and local agencies, teachers, staff and parents. They are a direct result of the high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., in February and the subsequent national — and local — concerns about improving health and safety in the nation’s schools.
The first prong of the plan is to hire a full-time School Safety Officer, Ruddy said. The individual will be likely a retired law enforcement or military officer and hired through the school district — not through local or state police — and be directly responsible to and an employee of the district.
The SSO’s job responsibilities would be:
- Building security.
- Threat and crime deterrent and response.
- Student relationships.
- Restraint and elopement (students leaving school grounds).
- Investigations and student interviews.
- Legal and investigative processes.
- Dealing with orders of protection, restraining orders and custody/family court issues.
No decision has been made whether the SSO would wear some sort of law enforcement uniform or something less official, and whether or not the SSO would carry a weapon. Those decisions will be up to the school board, said Superintendent Matt Reilly. Board members Jennifer Parmalee and JoAnn Race said they would not vote to approve any SSO officer position if it included carrying a weapon, while member Leigh Baldwin said the SSO should carry a weapon. No other board members voiced on opinion on the issue at the meeting.
The second prong of the plan would be to hire a part-time Mental Health Coordinator who would be certified in mental health counseling and would play “multiple roles” in the district responding to mental health issues, Ruddy said.
The MHC’s job responsibilities would be:
- Student counseling.
- Assist in procedures of mental health hospital referrals.
- Assist with staff training in mental health issues.
- Assist in mandated IEP counseling.
- Assist with county/outside agency connections.
Since a majority of an SSO’s job would be student relations — as all outside experts and agencies have told the board during past meetings and informational sessions on the issue — the SSO and MHC would work closely together to address students’ needs, but would also have “very distinct responsibilities,” Ruddy said. The administration wants the SSO to focus on the safety and law enforcement aspect of the issue and the MHC to focus on the mental health and counseling aspect of the issue.
The third prong of the plan would be to have the district utilize outside agency support on an as-needed basis from organizations such as Kids Oneida, Liberty Resources and Contact. These agencies can give the district free support on request in multiple areas of programming and initiatives, Ruddy said. They can supply “specific people at specific times,” he said.
Reilly said the district needed to start moving forward on creating the new positions and programs immediately if they were to be in place by the start of school in September.
After a lengthy discussion on the proposal, the board members each individually voiced their support for the idea. No official vote was taken or deemed necessary.
“I think this is a great multi-pronged approach that is moving us in the right direction,” said Board President Jan Woodworth. The other board members agreed, with Parmalee saying the proposal had “a lot of merit” and member Ron Luteran calling it “a great idea.”
As with any district hiring decision, the Board of Education will ultimately vote to accept or reject the administration’s candidates for the SSO and MHC positions.
