Oakland school board proposes $250,000 to hire armed police for four elementary buildings

OAKLAND — The school board's proposed budget will include spending $250,000 to hire four armed police officers to patrol the borough's four elementary schools starting next fall.

The board will present its budget at Tuesday's meeting.

The officers "will provide greater occupant building safety and security for each of the district schools," said Schools Superintendent Gina Coffaro.

Officers would be assigned to Dogwood Hill Elementary, Heights Elementary, Manito Elementary and Valley Middle School, Coffaro said in an email statement. "The district will be moving forward with the process of putting in place Class III Officers and other security upgrades that have also been ongoing daily in our district."

The Police Department is already "an appreciated presence in our schools, and has been instrumental in many of our successful school safety extension programs such as the Junior Police Academy, Safety Town and Law Enforcement Against Drugs," Coffaro said. The goal, she said, "is to expand upon this already-established important relationship in order to protect students and staff even more effectively in the future."

Board of Education Vice President John Scerbo called the proposal a "significant change to our budget" in a statement to the Borough Council during its April 12 meeting. He did not elaborate on how it would affect the rest of the budget, which is not scheduled to be posted until Friday.

"This is something that is a priority to us," Scerbo said. "This is an issue that needs to be addressed immediately."

New Jersey School Boards Association spokeswoman Janet Bamford said it does not keep statistics on which schools in the state have police patrolling buildings. According to the organization's legislative advocate Jonathan Pushman, a Class III officer must be "a retired law enforcement officer, less than 65 years of age, who previously served as a fully-trained full-time police officer in New Jersey" within three years of appointment and who also must be "physically capable of performing the functions of the position."

Oakland Police Chief Kevin Sanzari confirmed Wednesday that the hiring process would not be restricted to former Oakland officers.

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"The officer will be present during the entire school day," Sanzari said. The school board has the option of assigning the officer to after-school activities at its discretion.

Borough Council representatives met with police and school officials Tuesday to review the proposal.

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"We thoroughly discussed and reviewed the shared service agreement between the borough and school board," Mayor Linda Schwager said Wednesday. "For the safety of the children, I am totally in support of the school board's recommendation. The agreement will be presented at the council meeting on April 26, at which time I will recommend approval and sign on behalf of the borough."

The 1,277-student district serves children in pre-K to eighth grade. High school students have their choice of attending Indian Hills High School in Oakland or Ramapo High School in Franklin Lakes with students from Wyckoff and Franklin Lakes.

The school board's budget will be posted on its website Friday. The April 25 meeting will be held in-person only, not remote access, at Valley Middle School, 71 Oak St., with a work session at 5:30 p.m. and the budget hearing at 6:30 p.m. For more information visit oaklandschoolsnj.org.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Armed police in schools budgeted for Oakland NJ elementary buildings