Author: John Kaufmann

I heard about Ashton on the BBC Radio 4.

It is hard to believe that School Board members, in supporting adding an SRO to the Middle School while opposing the rearming of the grounds monitors, actually thoughtfully reviewed the training and background standards of SROs in making this decision. In light of the minimal training and experience requirements for SRO positions, the choice to use more expensive SROs rather than to rearm the monitors seems to have been based on an exaggerated narrative regarding the expertise of the School Resource Officers (SRO). 

From all reports, we are fortunate to have two excellent School Resource Officers (SROs) working for the Saratoga Springs School District.  We have a policeman from the Saratoga Springs Police Department at the High School and a sheriff from the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Department at the Middle School.

It is important to have a realistic assessment of what the qualifications for these positions are, however.

There are currently no standards, no minimum training requirements, nor certification process for SROs in New York State.  The only requirement is that they be an active duty law enforcement officer.  Any additional qualifications and  training  requirements are entirely up to the law enforcement agency employing the SRO.

As the correspondence I have added at the end of this post shows, the National Association of School Resource Officers recommends that active law  enforcement personnel who want to become SROs are only required to participate in a three day training program they offer.

I am not familiar with  the Saratoga County Sheriff Department’s requirements for training SROs, but I did get an email with information about the Saratoga Springs Police Department’s requirements from Public Safety  Commissioner Peter Martin which can be found at the end of this post.

According to Commissioner Martin the SRO employed by the Saratoga Springs Police Department participated in a  38 hour training program.  The officer assigned to the High School is a patrolman which is the lowest rank in the Saratoga Springs Police Department.

The required training for an SRO position whether the standard be what NASRO uses or that which the Saratoga Springs Police Department uses is pretty modest.  This raises the question of who is better prepared, an entry level law enforcement officer with one week of training or a twenty year veteran of law enforcement who has been through years of active training including active shooter training.  As the training for SROs is provided by the state police academies, the cost would probably be modest to provide this training to retired veteran officers such as the grounds monitors.  Adding this SRO training to a retired law enforcement officer who has had the benefit of decades of on the job experience could just be a better, more cost effective alternative to a much higher paid but less experienced SRO.

In correspondence  attached below, the executive director of NASRO cites some variables for consideration if retired law enforcement officers were to return to active duty to become an SRO.  He would want to know how long they had been retired, whether they were physically fit, and whether their skill sets were up to par. 

It should be acknowledged that being an active duty law enforcement officer ensures the person’s physical fitness and that they will receive  regular training in a variety of skills.  There are of course, ways that the school district could  build these requirements into a school security position that could be filled by retired officers such as the school monitors. .

As mentioned above the Saratoga Springs Police officer who is the current SRO at the High School is a patrolman. A promotion from patrolman to a higher rank would mean reassigning this individual to a different duty.  Since the kind of person who hopefully would be assigned as an SRO would have some impressive skills in areas such as conflict resolution, one would expect this person to be on a career track within the department to higher pay and more responsibilities.  The SRO position then is one subject to periodic turnover as new officers assigned to this duty move up the chain of command. Employing retired law enforcement officers who are fit and properly trained would provide a greater chance of continuity than an SRO.

An Aspect That May Have Contributed To The Insurance Carrier’s Position on SROs

There has been some confusion over the District’s insurance carrier’s position on school safety.  While they recommended two SROs be employed they declined to address the rearming of monitors one way or the other.  I think it is important to acknowledge the difference in liability between SROs and monitors.  SROs are employed by their respective law enforcement agencies.  In the Saratoga Springs District that would be the Saratoga Springs Police Department and the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Department.  As employees of these external organizations any liability would be shared between the school district and the respective law enforcement agencies.  Monitors, on the other hand, would be employed by the district.  In this case the district and their insurer would be solely liable for their actions.  While this may not be the only reason the insurance carrier took a clear position only on the SROs, it may have been a factor.

The Warren County Model

Warren County has developed an interesting program to address school safety in an affordable way. 

The New York State retirement system limits income for retired law enforcement officers who take on publically funded jobs to no more than $30,000.00.  What Warren County has done is to hire retired law enforcement officers as temporary employees.  They work as SROs  until they hit their maximum.  The county pays  $22.50 per hour without health or retirement benefits.  This is $5.00 more than the armed grounds monitors in the Saratoga Springs School District had been making.   Contrast that to the $72,000.00 per year the Saratoga Spring School District pays for an SRO assigned by the local sheriff’s department with additional money coming from the County.

Warren County  circumscribes the job of an SRO to differentiate it from a regular law enforcement officer.  The contract under which these SROs operate precludes them from making arrests or involving themselves in the disciplining of students.  Any criminal activity at the school is referred to local law enforcement and any other student violations are referred to the school administration.  The goal is for the students to see these SROs as a resource in the interest of safety.

It is my understanding that the current contract between the union representing the police in Saratoga Springs and the city would not allow retired officers to be hired as temporary employees but it would be something to consider when contract negotiations come up again in the future.

Here is an excellent article about local SROs in general and Warren County in particular. 

The Bottom Line

The issues about employing staff to protect students is not a simple one.  In the end, it involves people of good will to be open and creative in engaging in how best we can find an affordable solution for protecting the students, teachers, and staff in the District.

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NASRO

From Mac Hardy, Director of Operations, NASRO

Q: “Can you tell me if your organization supports active duty law enforcement (working part time as security for a school) and retired police officers carrying firearms on school campus?  My understanding is that NASRO does support them as School Security Monitors as long as they have undergone NASRO’s 3 day training seminar.”

A: “Yes, we strongly believe they need specialized training.” – Mac Hardy

From Mo Canaday, Executive Director, NASRO

From: Mo Canady <mo.canady@nasro.org>
Date: Thu, Mar 21, 2019 at 2:37 PM
Subject: FW: Follow up

Good Morning All,

In reviewing everything that you have sent to us, I have come to the conclusion that NASRO’s position on firearms on a school campus is very likely being used without proper context in this debate. 

Our guidance in no way automatically eliminates retired law enforcement officers (LEO) from the ability to serve as an SRO.  However, there is a right and wrong way to do this.  If a retired LEO is going to serve as an SRO, his law enforcement authority and credentials must be restored in order to comply with the federal definition of an SRO.  So an important question here would be in regards to the status of the Grounds Monitors.  It is my understanding that they are retired LEO’s but do they have full law enforcement authority as well credentials?

If the answer is no, then they do not fit the definition of on an SRO.

If the answer is yes, then they can certainly fit the definition.  But there are other variables to consider such as; how long they have been retired, if they are still physically fit to do the job, if their skill set has diminished.

I will use myself as an example.  I have been retired from law enforcement for over eight years.  I am in good shape, but not the physical condition that I was in when I retired.  And my skill set has certainly diminished.  I would not consider myself a good candidate to return to active duty at least at this very moment.  So the selection of retired officers must be done with great care. 

Retired officers can certainly serve effectively as SRO’s but within a very careful set of parameters. 

I hope that this is helpful to you. 

 Mo Canady

Executive Director 
NASRO

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From: Peter Martin <peter.martin@saratoga-springs.org>
Date: March 26, 2019 at 10:40:34 AM EDT
To: John Kaufmann <>
Cc: John Daley <john.daley@saratoga-springs.org>
Subject: Fwd: SRO

John,

I believe that the term “School Resource Officer” has different meanings in different states.  In New York State, there are two sources of courses for active duty police officers that have been approved by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Service.  These organizations are the National School Resource Officer Association and the NYS Juvenile Officers Association.  Both have websites with significant information about their courses.  I believe that the courses offered by these two organizations are similar – they involve 38 hours of instruction over 5 days.  There is also an advanced course of study for an additional five days.

We currently have only one trained School Resource Officer in the Saratoga Springs Police Department.  We anticipate sending more officers for training this year.  When our SRO is not available, we do not have another officer cover unless there are special circumstances.  We do coordinate with the School District for extra police presence during certain events.  For example, we may send additional officers to cover a popular basketball or football game.  Coverage for these events is usually planned well in advance, although SSPD will respond with additional coverage whenever requested. 

Regards,

Peter Martin

 

Peter R. Martin
Commissioner of Public Safety
City of Saratoga Springs

I went down to the Saratoga County Board of Elections today to review the petitions for the candidates who were not endorsed by the Republican or Democratic city committees and so circulated petitions independently.  Two of the candidates are seeking to replace members of the Saratoga Springs City Council.  Tim Holmes is seeking to unseat Mayor Meg Kelly and Patricia Morrison is challenging Commissioner of Finance Michele Madigan.

An observant reader will note that a number of people who circulated petitions for more than one of these candidates also served  on the 2017 Charter Commission which advocated for a city manager form of government or were active in the leadership of the campaign to adopt it.

Members of that charter commission who circulated  petitions were Bob Turner (Chairman of the 2017 Charter Review  Commission), Pat Kane (Vice Chairman of the 2017 Commission), Laura Chodos, Ann Bullock, Gordon Boyd, and Minita Sanghvi.

Gordon Boyd, who last time I checked was a member of the Independence Party, is a notary which explains his petitioning for Holmes, a Republican, and the other candidates who are Democrats.  Only individuals who are members of the same party as the candidate on their petition can normally circulate it.  The one exception is a notary.

Active in the leadership of the charter change campaign were Ellen Egger-Aimone, Peter McTygue, Patty Morrison, and Dillon Moran.

As some of the readers of this blog may recall, during the campaign to pass their charter, Vice-Chairman Pat Kane left the following expletive laden message on Commissioner Skip Scirocco’s cell phone.

When pressed by the Saratogian to explain Kane’s message, charter chairman Bob Turner refused to apologize for his behavior but instead used it as an opportunity to repeat the talking points of the pro-charter change campaign.

At the subsequent charter commission meeting, not one person said anything about the behavior of their vice chair let alone advocated for a public apology.

For those of us hoping for some relief from the worst kind of politics this is going to be a long haul.

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Following are complete lists of the people who circulated petitions for candidates who were not endorsed by the major parties:

For Mayor, Tim Holmes, Republican:

John Safford

Matt Hogan

Patrick Cromyn (Albany address)

Peter Gemellaro

Sean Cane

Pat Kane

Tim Holmes

John Huppich

David Solovy

Mark Pingel

Gordon Boyd

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For Kendall Hicks, Public Safety, Democrat:

Ellen Egger-Aimone

Kendall Hicks

Patricia Morrison

Joy King

Steve Bederian

Alice Smith

Peter McTygue

Ann Bullock

Suzanne Kwasniewski

Shafer Gaston

Gordon Boyd

James Gould

Al Ormsby

Dianne Pedinotti

Otis Maxwell

Dillon Moran

Frank Capone

Molly Gagne

Bob Turner

Minita Sanghvi

Laura Chodos

Meaghan McEntee

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For Patty Morrison, Finance, Democrat:

Ellen Egger-Aimone

Kathleen Harder

Alice Smith

Robert Turner

Steve Bederian

Peter McTygue

Ann Bullock

Minita Sanghvi

Kendall Hicks

Tom McTygue

Gordon Boyd

Mable Morrison (East Greenbush address)

Lisa Scerbo (Mechanicville)

Laura Chodos

Pamela Lonegran

Julie Walsh (Stillwater address)

I will be writing more extensively on this but I thought I would get this list out quickly.

All petitions for the respective parties had to be filed with the Saratoga County Board of Elections by the end of the business day, today (April 4) so we have the final line up.

The Incumbents:                               Party

Mayor: Meg Kelly                            Democratic/Working Family/Independence

Accounts: John  Franck                  Democratic/Working Family/Independence

Finance: Michele Madigan            Democratic/Working Family/Independence

Supervisor: Tara Gaston                 Democratic/Working Family

Public Works: Skip Scirocco          Republican/Conservative/Independence

Supervisor: Matt Veitch                  Republican/Conservative/Independence

 

The Challengers:

Mayor: Tim Holmes                         Republican/Conservative

Finance: Bob Barile                         Republican/Conservative

Public Safety: Robin Dalton           Republican/Conservative/Independence

Supervisor: Steve Mittler               Republican/Conservative

Public Safety: Kendall Hicks           Democratic

Public Works: Dillon Moran           Democratic

Finance: Patty Morrison                 Democratic

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Although petitions were circulated for Eilleen Finneran for Public Safety, she did not submit them to the Board of Elections .  She sent out the following statement:

After weeks of meeting with many supportive and encouraging Saratogians, I have decided not to run for the office of Public Safety Commissioner of the City of Saratoga Springs. I have previously served as Deputy Mayor and Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety for 10 years. While I hope someday to continue serving the City I love, now is not the right time for me. I appreciate the support I have received from the Saratoga Springs Democratic Party and, in particular, from the dedicated volunteers who collected the hundreds of petition signatures necessary to put my name on the ballot for the primary election to be held in June. I also appreciate the encouragement I received from Mayor Meg Kelly and Finance Commissioner Michele Madigan. I will vote for both of them this year, and I recommend that other voters do the same. Our most critical public safety need remains a third emergency facility in the eastern part of the city. I urge all Saratogians to support the City Council’s efforts to finally build that much needed facility. 

 

 

 

 

Connie Woytowich who is running for the Saratoga Springs School District Board of Education has severed her relationship with Saratoga Parents For Safer Schools.

Ms. Woytowich released the following statement from her website:

I appreciate the support from the community as I announced that I rescinded the acceptance of my endorsement from Saratoga Parents for Safer Schools yesterday. I am moving on and am on civil terms with SPFSS. For those more curious, you can read more about it in Zach Matson’s article .

Saratoga Springs Parents For Safer Schools’ Statement:

As of March 27, 2019 Saratoga Parents for Safer Schools and school board candidate Connie Woytowich have decided to part ways in a civil manner. SPFSS wishes Connie much success in her campaign going forward. She is a dedicated teacher and valued member of the community.

As with any partnership, there are often times differences of opinion in regards to information dissemination.  Unfortunately, this was the case.

We look forward to continuing on our mission and are actively seeking a qualified candidate to fill the third position. SPFSS is committed to the promise of restored safety and looks forward to the May 21st election.

Stay tuned for our future announcement!

This is the post from the Saratoga Parents For Safer Schools’ Facebook page that precipitated the split:

Here is  a video of a wonderful  interview with John DeMarco done by the Antiquarian Bookseller Association of America.  If you never had the good fortune of meeting John, it gives you some feeling for who he was.  Most of all he was a man who loved books..

 

 

 

 

 

 

School safety proposals, whether they are “hard” as in armed security staff, “soft” as in programs meant to proactively reduce risk by  identifying and counseling students who may be a potential threat, or some combination of these,  must all confront the thorny problem as to how they will be funded.  While some grants might provide a temporary solution, they are rarely the source of sustainable on-going revenue.  To give the reader some idea of just how financially challenging some proposals can be, the most costly “hard” solution to place School Resource Officers in every school in the Saratoga Springs School District is estimated to cost approximately $500,000.00.

The reality is that the Saratoga Springs School District is already struggling to reduce costs to address a deficit it faces in the coming year.  Complicating the process is the fact that New York State’s contribution  to school districts varies from year to year.  Given that the state budget is supposed to be passed by April 1 but has not always been passed on time,  school systems often have to craft their budgets without actually knowing how much money they will have.

Added to this uncertain state funding landscape is the challenge districts face raising  money locally because of the New York State tax cap.

In 2011 New York State established a tax levy limit (generally referred to as a tax cap) that affected all local governments and school districts except New York City and the “Big Five” school districts (New York City, Yonkers, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse).  Under this law the property taxes levied by local governments and school districts cannot increase by more than 2% or the rate of inflation whichever is lower.  Tying the cap to the rate of inflation has meant that in some years local governments could raise taxes only 1% or less . Conversely if inflation rises above 2% local governments will have to come up with a budget that is not allowed to keep up with inflation.

Local governments and school districts have the option to override the tax cap but it must be by a super majority not a majority vote. For local governments (counties, cities, towns, villages and fire districts) this can be done with a 60% vote of the governing board.  School districts, however, can only override the tax cap with the approval of 60% of the voters in the district—a much more difficult hoop to jump through.

The original tax cap was not permanent but has been renewed every few years. This year Governor Cuomo has made making the tax cap permanent a priority.

Critics of Cuomo and the tax cap are advocating for a series of reforms if the cap is to be made permanent.  Some of the reforms Legislators are currently looking at include:

*Removal of the 60% supermajority requirement to override the cap and requiring instead a simple majority vote

*Amend the cap to make it 2% or the rate of inflation whichever is greater

*Exempt a number of expenses such as the maintenance and repair of school buildings,  projects related to natural disasters,  and school safety and school resource officers.

Critics of the tax cap argue that while the tax cap has generated savings for property owners, without sufficient state aid and with many mandated costs, many districts struggle to find the resources to fund needed programs. This could certainly be the situation the Saratoga School District finds itself in as it considers various proposals to address school safety issues.  Without reforms to the tax cap the District will have a very limited ability to increase revenue . The question will then become what existing programs and staff to cut to accommodate new safety measures.

In the end voters will have to decide not only how they want the district to address school safety but what they are willing to pay either in taxes or lost programs and staff.

I was devastated to learn that my friend John DeMarco who founded the Lyrical Ballad Bookstore has died after a long struggle with cancer.

John was one of  the kindest and most thoughtful people I have ever known.  The shop that he ran with his wife, Jan, was an important institution in Saratoga Springs. He supported just about every civic cause in this city. As noted in the Gazette Newspaper article about  his death, his shop weathered the challenging changes in the landscape of the book business and the city.  Much of this had to do with how well respected he was and to his dedication to his store and the world of books.

 

Born in Mechanicville, he started the store in 1971 shortly after he graduated from college.  He was a great story teller and after more than forty years in the business he had many to tell.

 

My heart goes out to Jan

Sustainable Saratoga is seeking home owners who would host a tree.  The tree can be along the street in front of your house or it can be in your yard.  For information about the program here is a link.