District had considered police presence

The Beacon City School District is not adding a police officer to its security detail, at least for now.

Six of seven board members (two seats are vacant) said in a straw poll on Monday (Dec. 15) that they are satisfied with the district's security staffing.

The board had discussed hiring a school resource officer, who is typically armed, after Board Member Eric Schetter suggested the position for Beacon High School and possibly Rombout Middle School. On Monday, Schetter, a former 25-year administrator in the Arlington district, was the only voice in favor.

"I feel the SRO makes the high school and/or the middle school that much safer," he said. "That's where I've been from the start."

The board mulled the idea for several months while hearing reports from Superintendent Matt Landahl on existing security and what a resource officer might do.

There are unarmed security monitors at each of the district's six elementary schools, as well as four at Rombout and nine at the high school, including two who work at night. They are supervised by Mark Thomas, a retired Beacon officer hired in 2018 as the district's first director of security.

The hire came the year after then-Police Chief Doug Solomon asked the board to let him assign an officer to the district. Thomas works with Altaris, a consulting firm that conducted security audits at each school and assists with emergency planning.

Through Thomas, the district works closely with Beacon and Town of Fishkill police (Glenham Elementary is in Fishkill), who do security walkthroughs and provide support during lockdown drills.

In 2014 and 2016, the Obama administration issued guidance emphasizing hiring school resource officers for safety and mentoring, rather than for discipline. It urged schools to create agreements that ban SROs from enforcing school rules, but ensure they are trained in child development and de-escalation techniques.

In Cold Spring, the Haldane campus has had a Putnam County sheriff's deputy as a resource officer since 2015. Garrison discussed the issue in 2020 and, earlier this year, hired a special patrol officer (SPO), a retired police officer whose role is limited to security and who does not carry a weapon.

Elsewhere in Dutchess County, Landahl said on Monday, each of five comparable high schools - Poughkeepsie, Hyde Park, Spackenkill, Arlington and Wappingers - has an SRO. The Poughkeepsie City School District is the only other district with a director of security. And Beacon has the highest security guard-to-student ratio in the county, "by a lot," Landahl said.

If Beacon were to hire an SRO, the district would pay the officer's salary and benefits for 10 months out of the year - roughly $100,000, "so we would need to reduce somewhere to do it," Landahl said, noting "there's not a ton of enthusiasm" among building administrators to cut existing security staff.

That led Board President Flora Stadler to call for the straw poll: Table the discussion or move ahead?

"I would not want to lose that [security-to-student] ratio that we have," Stadler said. Others agreed.

"I'm not convinced yet that it's effective, that it does make anything safer," said Catherine Buscemi. "I'm not convinced that there would be an acceptable comfort level for students having a police officer in the school."

When the board began its discussion in September, Stadler cited a 2023 University at Albany study that showed SROs are associated with a decline in some forms of violence. At the same time, they were associated with an increase in firearm offenses, which researchers said might be attributed to increased detection.

The study also concluded that having a police officer in school leads to an increase in "harsh" disciplinary actions, such as suspensions and arrests, particularly among Black students, male students and students with disabilities.

Meredith Heuer, the board vice president, said the district will probably have to revisit the convers...