Officers will be in each school, all day
Starting in early February, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department will be providing full-time security in each of the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District’s three schools.
The Board of Education approved the ‘municipal cooperative agreement’ last Thursday.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Sheboy said that uniformed sheriff’s officers — mostly retired law enforcement who have been trained in school security and deputized by the Sheriff’s Department — will work the full school days, every day of the school year. He expects there will be six officers assigned to the district, serving rotating shifts.
“It’s a service the Sheriff’s Department is offering,” Sheboy said, “and in talking to other school superintendents who have been using it, they are very pleased.”
The Cornwall School District, for instance, uses the service.
“This agreement, as well as the safety upgrades we have been implementing, evidences the board’s and the district’s commitment to the safety of all of our children,” Board of Education President Anne Lawless said of the move.
The move in no way diminishes the relationship between the school district and both the Highland Falls and Town of Highlands Police Departments, the superintendent said.
“They are still the responders of record,” he said, and indicated local police will still regularly visit the three schools as they do now. Sheboy has frequently praised both the THPD and HFPD for their service to the school district.
In the last half-dozen or so years, the Town of Highlands Police have provided a part-time school resource officer to O’Neill High School. The THPD still provides uniformed officers at extra-curricular functions — like sporting events — at the high Sheboy said he does not expect the presence of the Sheriff’s officers to provide any upset in any of the three schools — the Fort Montgomery Elementary, Highland Falls Intermediate or O’Neill.
“These days it is pretty normal for students to see police walking through their buildings.”
Dr. Frank Sheboy
Sheboy said the service will cost the school district approximately $154,000 for all three buildings, annually.
The funds for the remainder of the current school year will be paid “through economies” in other areas of the budget, he said, and then the amount will be budgeted for in the years ahead.
