By James Lomuscio
The third time was not the charm for Westport’s Board of Education tonight in its bid for the Board of Finance to approve funds to hire two middle school resource officers (SROs) this fall.
But for the school board, the finance board denial by a vote of 5 to 2 was a means to an end.
The Board of Education plans to take the denial to the Representative Town Meeting (RTM), so the legislative body by a supermajority can overturn it.
That’s just what the school board expected Aug. 28 when it voted 6 to 1 to ask to get the matter back on the finance board’s agenda.
Board of Education members said it was all about process since the new request — $185,000 using police overtime — was lower than the amount originally denied the second time around.
Though it sounds convoluted, the RTM cannot overturn something, the new funding request, that the finance board had not denied.
First Selectman Jim Marpe made the request on behalf of the school board because the SROs are trained police officers employed by the town, not the Board of Education.
He said tonight’s request and expected denial, which the school board plans to take to the RTM, “preserves the integrity of the legislative process.”
Currently, Staples High School will be the only town school with an SRO, funded via the salary of a DARE officer, a position which has been phased out.
As in the past two Board of Finance denials, Michael Rea, vice chairman, and Andrea Moore voted for the appropriation. Nancie Dupier, who abstained as she was new to the board during the last vote, sided with the majority, saying adding two more SROs would require more study.
Finance board member James Westphal seemed the most outspoken against the proposal, arguing that SROs were not a deterrent and that car accidents, drug overdoses and suicides posed greater threats to students.
“For every homicide that occurs in a school, 50 happen outside schools,” Westphal said. “Schools are the safest place.
“It just doesn’t show up on cable news that way,” he added.
Finance Board Chairman Brian Stern railed against the request, calling it incomplete and having “long term financial impact as to how it’s going to be funded.”
He also said that if the school district were not paying for it, “you can’t control it.”
Lee Caney suggested that a committee be formed “to look at the benefits and drawbacks of SROs.”
“Let’s not rush into something permanent without studying it,” Caney said.
Finance board member Sheri Gordon said having “a squad car outside the school is a much greater deterrent.”
“I would like to start with one (the SRO at Staples) and go from there,” she said.
Schools Superintendent Colleen Palmer has been advocating SROs since last fall, saying that Westport was the only school system in its district reference group (DIRG) not to have them.
“SROs have been around and in use in our country for 20 years,” she told the finance board tonight.
She also said that he push for SROs for this year was not intended as a pilot program.
“It was not my intent to say, ‘Let’s try this for a year and see how it goes,’” Palmer said. “Our district does take safety and security very seriously.”
