Each of Valley Central’s schools has a school resource officer (SRO) assigned to it by the town or village police department in which the school is located. This includes the Alternate Learning Center (ALC), housed in the former Maybrook Elementary School.

Each year, the school district enters into a contract with each of the affected municipalities to supply an SRO for the coming school year. That annual contract seemed to be in jeopardy for a while as district and village officials wrestled with resolving a contract provision: which entity has the authority to name a particular SRO for the school?

“We’ve been talking about this since June,” Maybrook Mayor Dennis Leahy explained at last week’s special village board meeting. “There was a problem with the school district having the discretion to tell us who to appoint the SRO (at the ALC).”

The school district wanted the sole discretion, with the village’s input, to select the ALC’S SRO. The village argued that Maybrook Police Chief Arnold “Butch” Amthor should have that authority, since it is his police department.

Leahy said that after three weeks of negotiations, the issue was resolved.

The new contract with Valley Central, for the 2023-24 school year, was approved by the village board at a special meeting last week.

The negotiated section of the contract now reads: “The Superintendent of Schools may, for any lawful reason, request the removal and replacement of the SRO in the school with another SRO. If the SRO is not replaced with another SRO acceptable to the district, the district may terminate this agreement upon ten days written notice to the village.”

Village Attorney Kelly Naughton added that if the school district requests the removal and replacement of the current SRO, it “must be for a lawful reason”.