HOWELL — The Howell K-8 School District Board of Education has voted to create the position of director of security.
Board members took the action on Jan. 23 as the Dec. 14 school shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., remained fresh in the minds of district administrators and elected officials.
At a Jan. 3 board meeting, more than two dozen residents suggested that the board place a safety officer in each district school.
On Jan. 23, a motion to solicit proposals for the hiring of school safety officers failed.
Board members Suzanne Brennan, Al Miller and Tim O’Brien voted in favor of the motion.
Board members Mary Cerretani, Stephen Levine, John Van Noy, Chuck Welsh, Jeanne DePompo and Jeanette Smith voted no.
Howell resident Janet Schindler thanked the board for rejecting the motion, saying, “I am happy the board is taking time to think through this process.”
No member of the public objected to the board’s vote to defeat the motion regarding the security officers.
Later in the meeting, the board members approved a motion that proposed the hiring of a director of security.
Cerretani, Levine, Welsh, Smith, O’Brien, Brennan and Miller voted yes on that motion.
DePompo and Levine voted no on the motion.
Job responsibilities and a salary for the director of security have not been determined.
The creation of the new position came as the best advice of the safety task force, a committee of faculty members, board members and residents. The task force examined the existing safety procedures in Howell’s schools.
The task force and the board have been working with the Howell Police Department since the Newtown shooting.
O’Brien, who co-chairs the task force with Business Administrator Ron Sanasac, said the director of security will have similar responsibilities to those of the district’s three school resource officers.
The director of security may be hired toward the end of the current school year, but certainly by September, Sanasac said.
During the meeting, O’Brien and Van Noy debated the placement of armed officers in the schools.
“The point is to help people, not to create a battleground,” Van Noy said.
His comment was met by a round of applause from residents and faculty members in attendance at the meeting, which was held at Howell Middle School North.
Van Noy said he had been reading articles and reaching out to psychologists for advice since the Newtown incident and concluded that not enough is being done to address mental health issues that beget acts of violence.
O’Brien argued against following the advice of the press and professors, and suggested trusting the Howell Police Department. At a previous meeting, a representative of the police department said a trained guard would be the best defense against an armed intruder at a school.
O’Brien said he believes residents would tolerate a tax increase that would invariably result from hiring 12 guards for the schools.
Howell police Capt. Jeff Mayfield’s suggestions at the previous meeting included having one hardened point of entry at every school.
In response to the suggestion, Superintendent of Schools Enid Golden issued a letter to the community on Jan. 14 detailing the new entry door access protocol, which tightens up security at each school’s single point of entry.
Golden said all parents will now be required to make an appointment before visiting their child’s school, and they must state their business through an intercom system before being buzzed in to the building.
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