Albion village, ACS discussing agreement to add school resource officer

ALBION – The school district and village are both pushing to have an Albion police officer assigned full-time as a school resource officer, hopefully by the end of this calendar year.

Police Chief Roland Nenni met with school officials during the Board of Education meeting on Sept. 10 to discuss having an officer assigned to Albion Central School.

Both the Village Board and Board of Education want to make a resource officer a reality.

“We’re very much in favor,” said Margy Brown, the Board of Education president. “We’re definitely moving in that direction. The board wants it and I believe it will happen.”

The district and village used to have a partnership for a school resource officer but that stopped about a decade ago. Officers with the Albion Police Department have stepped up their presence at the district in recent years, but no officer is assigned to the schools.

Nenni said officers who stop by often are called away for other incidents in the village. A school resource officer would devoted to the district full-time, except for July and August when the officer would be on regular road patrols.

The district and village are trying to determine the cost. Nenni this evening told the Village Board he believes the cost of the officer, salary and benefits, is $81,250.

Kendall and Lyndonville have both added school resource officers this school year and are paying the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office $100,000 to have a deputy assigned to each district. Medina Central School pays the Village of Medina $60,000 to have an officer assigned to the district during the school year.

Nenni said members of the school district will help determine which officer would work at the district. He said a new position would be created in the department and the position would be posted through Civil Service.

“The officer works for us but he is a resource for the district,” Nenni told the Village Board this evening. “I think it would be an amazing thing.”

The police chief said the officer would provide security for the district, and he sees the role of “relationship building” as another big benefit of having an officer devoted to the schools.

Nenni said he is pleased with the reception from the district. He is hopeful the school resource officer can be a long-term position.

“Things are great right now with the partnership between us and them,” he said.

Brown, the Board of Education president, said the board will likely discuss the position during its next meeting on Monday.