HANOVER - Hanover Supervisor Todd Johnson updated the town board Monday night on a meeting concerning the school resource officer (SRO) agreement.
Last week, Johnson, along with entities from the Silver Creek and Forestville schools and the village of Silver Creek, met to discuss the SRO position at the schools.
In previous years, the village of Silver Creek paid for two of the three days the SRO was at Silver Creek Central School. The officer attended Forestville Central School twice per week.
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Hanover Supervisor Todd Johnson talked about the school resource officer agreement at the board meeting Monday.
Johnson said the town supervisor is responsible for executing the contract for police protection at the schools, but it does not mean that the town is necessarily responsible for the cost.
However, Johnson said the village of Silver Creek says it does not have the funds to continue supporting the SRO contract.
"Both school districts pay 'x' amount of dollars, but at this point in time it looks like the village is not going to fund the two 4-hour shifts like they have always done in the past," Johnson said.
He said he would like to have a joint meeting of municipalities to see if a solution could be reached.
"I mentioned to the people that were involved that I would try to get a meeting together with the village of Forestville, along with some other issues we want to have meetings about, and see if we can come up with something to do financially between the three municipalities to see that we have the full coverage of the school resource officer and see what the feasibility would be," he said.
He said support from the Seneca Nation of Indians is questionable because Seneca students do not attend Forestville schools. He said the matter would likely not be decided either way until after the election of the Seneca Nation president in November.
"Hopefully we can come up with the funding for this program which has been there for students in the past," he said.
Village Trustee Nick Piccolo reported he had spoken with all municipalities and school districts in the town and all are on board for a joint meeting. He presented Johnson with an agenda and said a date needs to be set.
The Hanover Town Board will next meet Sept. 24 at 7:30 p.m. with a public hearing on the local law to override the tax levy limit at 7:35 p.m.
