School officer is still a work in progress for Dunkirk
The Dunkirk City School District’s idea to have a school resource officer, but at a lesser cost, is moving — slowly.
It was reported at the recent Dunkirk Board of Education meeting that the idea of an “in house” SRO is a ‘work in progress.
“I would say we’re classifying it as a ‘work in progress.’ It’s going to take some time to get through it. It was a beneficial meeting from the standpoint that our attorney got to sit with the city’s attorney. I know there’s a number of questions liability wise that they need answers to, but at least it got both parties together in the same room and hopefully we can work something out,” President David Damico said.
Largely due to cuts in funding in the NRG payment in lieu of tax agreement payments, the school had to drop its SRO. However, the school is looking to maintain the position in some capacity.
“There are a couple different paths that we can go at this point, so that’s what we’re trying to determine — which will be best for the district, not only to get a position for our kids and our faculty, but also to make sure we do it cost effectively,” Superintendent Dr. James Tracy explained.
Dunkirk Mayor Willie Rosas said he is ready and willing to help the district, but also must make sure to stick to union contracts.
“The school is proposing a way to have a special patrolman working at the school. If they are able to do what they want to do, it will save Dunkirk City School taxpayers over 50 percent of what they were paying. They reached out to us and we just want to make sure that we stay and remain in compliance with our (Police Benevolent Association) contract. As long as we are in compliance I don’t have a problem moving forward in that direction, but we have made calls to counsel in Albany with NYCOM just to make sure that we’re not in any way violating that contract. I understand the school’s concerns and I’m definitely going to look to try to help out in any way that we can,” he said.
The city and school are working together in several capacities, from the SRO, to improvements to the Babe Ruth field and on-site police training.
“We’re working together on a lot of different projects. … We seem to have the line of communication open now on a lot of different fronts and it seems to be what’s best for our community,” Rosas added.
Dr. Tracy said the district received a thank-you letter from the Dunkirk Police Department for allowing officers to train at School 4 over spring break. He extended his thanks to the department for working with the school on this and other matters.
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