District officials in the Valley Central School District are taking recent security concerns from parents, staff and community members seriously in the wake of school shootings across the country and local concerns following a threat towards one of the schools. During the July 6, 2022, Board of Education Meeting, Interim Superintendent of Schools Michael Bellarosa spoke about the creation of a Director of Safety and Emergency Preparedness position that was approved by the Board to oversee safety protocols for the district. Bellarosa has made school safety a priority on his agenda as the district prepares for the upcoming school year this summer.

“The Board has approved a Director of Safety and Emergency Preparedness position. It will report directly to the Superintendent of Schools and will be a full time Orange County Civil Service position. Applications are currently being accepted and interviews will begin over the next few weeks so we hope to have some qualified candidates and bring an employee on this summer,” Bellarosa explained during the board meeting.

In a statement from the school district on Friday, July 8, it states, “The District has had school resource officers at the high school and middle school provided by the Town of Montgomery and at Montgomery Elementary School provided by the Village of Montgomery. Additionally, schools have hall monitors and greeters who screen and monitor visitors. The Director of Safety and Emergency Preparedness will oversee the coordination of SRO positions and agreements and the training of hall monitors and security personnel in the district. The position will also oversee the District Health and Safety Committee which meets four times a school year. The position will work with the District Safety Coordinator.”

Bellarosa shared that the District is also looking into various technology that will assist in keeping school grounds and buildings safe including panic alarm systems and utilizing camera-based technology. He added that as speakers mentioned during the most recent board meetings there are various areas of school security that need to be addressed and the district is taking that seriously. He also said the district is looking into the Smart Schools Project grant for opportunities to improve safety and security under the technology umbrella.

Bellarosa spoke about a technology he saw on the news and investigated which was developed by Navy Seals called Zero Eyes. He would like the company to come and do a demonstration to showcase the technology. “It’s a very interesting piece of technology that actually works with identifying a possible weapon outside of the school-somewhere in the vicinity of the school- and very quickly sends that signal- and again this is using Navy technology- to a center where there’s actual people. Then it claims within four of five seconds you get a notification that you need to go into lock down now and notify law enforcement. It works with the cameras you have so I think we want to really investigate what we have outside in the way of cameras,” he explained.

Bellarosa also shared that Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources William Miller will be taking part in a school safety roundtable on behalf of the district with Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus and representatives from other area schools on July 15. The goal of the event is to look at all of the participating schools and organizations in terms of safety and learn from one another to see what resources and programs Orange County already has in place.

Valley Central officials are also working in conjunction with the Town of Montgomery to increase security in the schools. Town of Montgomery Supervisor Brian Maher and Town of Montgomery Police Chief John Hank have announced ten potential part-time job openings for the purpose of putting an armed Town of Montgomery Police Officer in all seven school buildings located in the Valley Central School District. This announcement comes after Maher and Hank made a presentation at the June 13 Valley Central School Board Meeting.

“As Valley Central graduates and as parents of Valley Central students, Supervisor Maher and I are as invested in this issue as you can possibly be,” said Town of Montgomery Police Chief John Hank. “We have recently received positive feedback from both the Valley Central School Board and the Town of Montgomery Board. Now, at the direction of Supervisor Maher, we are moving forward to hire the required personnel to ensure that at the beginning of our next school year in September 2022, our plan is put into effect. We will put a Town of Montgomery Police Officer in every school building located in the Valley Central School District for the entire school day and our children will have the protection they need and deserve.” Applications for the part-time positons are currently being accepted by the Town of Montgomery Police Department.

The district also vows to continue its work on the mental health crisis facing students and addressing student needs. Covid assistance funds have allowed the district to add psychologists and school assistance counselors to continue to provide programs in order to assist with social-emotional learning.

“It is imperative that the Valley Central School District can provide assurance to our community that the safety and well-being of our students is an utmost priority,” Bellarosa said. “We need to be committed to being prepared to respond swiftly and effectively in the event of any emergency and its aftermath and especially committed to implementing improvements as quickly as possible. I believe that the best way to accomplish this is through a unified effort involving all of the talented agencies and leaders in the Valley Central Community. We need to commit to do our absolute best to work together for a common purpose. There is nothing more important than the safety of everyone - especially the children and families in our community.”