The Kingston City School District (KCSD) and the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office have come to an agreement to ensure M. Clifford Miller Middle School has a School Resource Officer (SRO) on campus for the 2023-24 school year.
The Town of Ulster Police Department traditionally supplies the KCSD with an SRO for Miller, but at a meeting last month council members declined to approve its annual contract with the district due to a shortage of officers. During their August 17 meeting, the town board said it was a combination of having just 24 of its 29 officer positions filled, along with the Ulster Police Department’s overtime budget for all of 2023 already used heading into September.
For the 2022-23 school year, the KCSD paid the Town of Ulster around $101,000 for an officer to serve as SRO during school hours and at special events held at Miller. General SRO duties include helping resolve student conflicts, transportation safety, substance abuse prevention, crime prevention and internet and computer safety.
In recent years, Miller has seen a man arrested for bringing a loaded shotgun and semi-automatic handgun onto campus, a pepper spray incident that injured students, and threats of violence written by a student on a bathroom wall.
During a school board meeting held on Wednesday, August 23, Superintendent Paul Padalino said that the district had been working with Ulster County Sheriff Juan Figueroa to find a solution after the Town of Ulster chose not to approve their contract. “Obviously, there are some hoops that have to be jumped through, but I think that we’re all on the same page with the need,” Padalino said. “I think we’re working collaboratively to make this problem go away.”
The problem began to go away last week when the county legislature voted 20-2 to approve the use of a sheriff’s deputy for the school year. Voting against the measure were chairwoman Tracey Bartels and legislator Phil Erner (D-Kingston), who said, “I speak for those who do not support this in their school,” echoing concerns from some in the community that having a police presence in schools isn’t welcomed by all parents.
One day later, the KCSD School Board approved the agreement, which will cost $116,352 for the 2023-24 school year. The district also has an SRO at Kingston High School and J. Watson Bailey, with both positions filled through the City of Kingston Police Department.
“I’m very happy that the County has agreed to partner with us after the need that we had at Miller for an SRO,” said Trustee Suzanne Jordan during the school board meeting held on Wednesday, September 20. “I’m grateful to them for working to meet our needs and I’m hoping it’s a very symbiotic partnership.”
Trustee Marc Rider credited the superintendent for ensuring that Miller did not have to operate without an SRO; though the contract with the county sheriff’s office was just confirmed, a deputy served as SRO on a temporary basis while the details for the 2023-24 school year were being worked out.
“I know from the time that we found out in the middle of August that the Town of Ulster was not approving the contract, he got to work right away and had a solution to where we had an SRO in the building from day one,” Rider said.
The school board also approved engaging the law firm of Shaw, Perelson, May & Lambert, LLC to review the other SRO contracts and review against a series of proposed addendum agreements to synchronize them for the 2-24-25 school year.
“I just want to clarify that the goal is to include in the new contact with the county all of the aspects of the other SRO contacts that the former safety and SRO committee worked very hard to inject into those contracts, which include issues about training and data reporting and dress code,” said trustee Cathy Collins. “Our goal is to synchronize and match all contracts so that we can have like agreements across the district.”
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