Buffalo News: Thirteen school districts to receive funding for resource officers

Thirteen Western New York school districts will receive money to support new and existing school resource officer programs.

Appearing Monday afternoon at West Seneca’s district offices, State Sen. Patrick M. Gallivan, R-Elma, announced that West Seneca will receive $25,000 in this year’s state budget toward funding its five, full-time school resource officers. The district has been picking up the tab of almost $250,000 a year on its own.

“Each of the five SROs we have are terrific with our students,” said School Superintendent Mark J. Crawford. “They are very approachable; they are friendly. They attend a lot of our school functions.

Each of West Seneca’s two high schools and two middle schools has its own SRO. The fifth officer makes the rounds of the district’s six elementary schools

The financial support from the state, provided through Gallivan, “is enormously helpful and gratefully appreciated,” the superintendent said.

“As a former state trooper and Erie County sheriff, I have great respect for law enforcement officers and the positive impact they can have in our schools,” Gallivan, chairman of the senate’s Committee on Crime, Crime Victims and Corrections, said in a statement. “In addition to offering security, the officers work closely with school administrators to promote positive relations and conflict resolution.”

Programs also included in the $318,630 total funding are in the Alden, Holland, Iroquois, North Collins and Springville-Griffith Institute school districts in Erie County; Attica, Letchworth, Perry and Warsaw in Wyoming County; Caledonia-Mumford and York in Livingston County; and Wheatland-Chili in Monroe County.

One full-time Erie County sheriff’s deputy will divide his time among the Alden, Holland, North Collins and Springville-Griffith Institute school districts. A little more than $108,000 was allocated for that, according to the senator’s office.

email: jhabuda@buffnews.com