School Resource Officer Vote Changes Venue

The venue for Monday's Westfield Board of Education has been moved from its regular 302 Elm St. location to the Westfield High School auditorium, according to district's spokeswoman Lorre Korecky.

The Board is scheduled to vote on the reinstatement of the school resource officer position, one that was held for a decade but was eliminated more than five years ago due to budget cuts, according to Westfield Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan.

Though the Board was supposed to vote on the position at its last meeting, held June 11, the decision was postponed as Board members, specifically Ann Cary and Mitch Slater, asked for more information and questioned if the Board was rushing the decision.

In a letter to the editor written earlier this week, Cary and Slater stated, "We receive information from the administration, ask questions, review new information, and then we come to a consensus and make a recommendation to the full Board.

The full Board then discusses the issue and votes in public. Yet, the decision of whether or not to hire an armed police officer, called a School Resource Officer (SRO), has not been discussed by any Board committee. Board Members were first given details about the SRO after our meeting on May 21 and were then asked to make a decision at the following meeting on June 11. It is true that the position was touched on briefly during the budget hearings, but was never discussed in any detail."

At the last meeting, a crowd of residents each took turns speaking before the Board to voice their concerns about putting an armed officer in Westfield High School at a cost of $100,000, to be shared equally by the Town and the Board of Education. Parents also sought clarification on the role of the officer, wondering if it was for security or for counseling or some hybrid of the two.

The larger-than-usual turnout at the previous meeting prompted many residents who plan to attend Monday's meeting to ask if the venue would be changed to accommodate the anticipated big gathering. 

Also on the agenda for Monday's meeting, members of the Westfield High School varsity baseball team will be honored with certificates for earning the sectional championship and runners-up in the state final.