Two more schools are looking to bring back a school resource officer this fall.

The Chautauqua County Legislature’s Public Safety and Audit and Control committees have both given approval for Pine Valley and Frewsburg to have an SRO through the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office. The contracts call for both schools to pay $84,040 for its officers.

In June, The Post-Journal and OBSERVER reported that of the 18 school districts in Chautauqua County, nine did not have a school resource officer.

The Sheriff’s Office currently provides an SRO for Silver Creek, Brocton and Forestville school districts. They also provide two officers for Erie 2 BOCES — one at the alternative education campus in Cassadaga and the other one splits time between Loguidice in Fredonia and Hewes in Ashville.

During the Audit and Control Committee meeting, Undersheriff Rich Telford noted that both Pine Valley and Frewsburg school districts have had officers in the past. However, due to funding challenges, particularly due to COVID-19, those positions were eliminated.

Telford said these officers will be full time at the schools. They will likely move current deputies to the schools and then the Sheriff’s Office will hire for their positions they leave.

Legislator Dan Pavlock, R-Sinclairville, asked if it’s a challenge for the Sheriff’s Office when schools cut their deputies due to funding challenges. “I understand why schools do it; they want to have it, but when you’re looking at a budget cut and they say ‘well, do we get rid of a teacher, do we get rid of an aide, do we get rid of a bus driver? Unfortunately, the resource officer is one of the first to do,” he said.

Telford said it does make it a challenge.

“When COVID hit, we had to lay off three full-time officers and that was very difficult to do. Sometimes we can absorb it through attrition but that time we couldn’t,” he said.

Telford noted that as they are adding these officers to the schools, they don’t know if they’ll stay at their jobs a year from now. In the future, he said the department may seek a two or three-year contract with school districts for planning purposes.

He noted that the officers’ first role is protection, but they offer a lot more.

“They can go into a kindergarten classroom and talk about bike safety and then they can go into a senior classroom and talk about drivers education and everything in between. In my opinion, it’s more than just having safety and security there,” he said.

Pavlock asked if the Sheriff’s Office ever visits schools that don’t have a resource officer.

“We do our best to make an appearance, just to walk through the schools” Telford replied. “In all honesty it goes in waves, where the first week or two of school every school will be covered. And then as things go on it kind of dies down, but we keep putting the reminders out there.”

Telford added that state police also do their best to visit every school every day.

The full legislature must give final approval for the two contracts when it meets on Wednesday, Aug. 24.