Greece Central School district and town of Greece locked in a ‘stalemate’ over school resource officer funding

GREECE, N.Y. (WHEC) — There is a stalemate between the Greece Central School District and the Town of Greece over increasing coverage for school resource officers for the new school year.

The district said it can only pay a certain amount and the town won’t budge on its rate.

Board president Sean McCabe said two school resource officers from the Greece Police Department have been in the district 4 out of 5 days a week, but because of safety concerns, the district wants to increase that to 5 days a week and increased what they were willing to pay.

However, district leaders said there was no negotiation from the town or police department and the town came back with a much higher figure the district said it can’t afford.

“I think the numbers are kind of catastrophic from what I’m reading,” Greece Central School District parent Rita Fronckowiak said.

Fronckowiak said with recent school shootings happening across the country the need for school resource officers is more critical than ever.

The district agrees and they said that to get officers in the building every day, they increased their proposal to the town from $190,000 to $240,000.

On Wednesday, the Greece Police Union weighed in on the stalemate between the Greece Central School District and the Town of Greece over increasing coverage for school resource officers.

In a statement, the union said:

“Friday the chief notified Director Chatterton that he’s going to send over the contract to him and that he made a couple of tweaks, the tweak was that the rate went to $175,000 per officer,” Greece Central School District Board President Sean McCabe said.

Making it no less than $350,000 for two school resource officers five days a week. A price point McCabe said they can’t meet.

“They’re not willing to move off that number and we just can’t go to that number,” McCabe said. “So at this point, we are looking at other options which include contracting with Monroe County Sheriff’s Office for them to provide resource officers or our own private type security system.”

McCabe said they hope the town reconsiders, but they will have some type of safety and security in place for the start of the school year.

News10NBC heard from the town supervisor Tuesday night who said the notion that there was no notice is ludicrous. His statement can be read below.

“To have a resource officer at every high school or middle school I think is imperative,” Fronckowiak said. “Imperative. We don’t have metal detectors. I think we should put it to the taxpayers, and maybe let them decide.”

The Greece Central School District is encouraging parents, staff, and the community to call the Town of Greece if they want to continue seeing school resource officers serve the schools.

Here is the full statement we received from Greece Schools: