Wayne County Life

By John Addyman

john.addyman@yahoo.com

NEWARK (Sep 8 10) – When Newark High School resource officer Bill Croft, a member of the Newark police department, was called to the Middle East with his unit last year, the village police department tried to fill in his special position with Officer Gary VerStraete.

But placement issues made it difficult for the Newark police to put one officer in the schools every day. “We had Gary for some time, and other officers when he wasn’t able to be here,” said Schools Superintendent Henry Hann tonight. “We didn’t have the same continuity that we had with Bill Croft.”

The district may be getting some help from outside the village. In a move paralleling what has been done in the Sodus school district this year, Newark has asked the Sheriff’s office if it could supply a resource officer or two half-time officers for this school year. Sodus had a state police officer as its resource officer. When funding disappeared for the program, the district got a grant to hire another officer, using the Sheriff’s Department as the source.

In this morning’s Wayne County Supervisors’ Public Safety Committee meeting, Sheriff Barry Virts said his office and the Newark school district were in negotiations to furnish a school resource officer.

“The school resource officer they had had been deployed,” said Virts, “and the Newark Police Benevolent Association effused to allow a part-time person at the school. The superintendent came to me and asked about two part-time officers.”

Virts said he would like the district to agree to a two-year contract and he will need an accommodation on unemployment costs. The officer’s salary and benefits would be paid jointly by the Village of Newark, Town of Arcadia and the school district itself – the same arrangement that existed last school year with the Newark police department.

“We’re considering it,” said Hann tonight. “We have a number of options, but this is something we’re interested in pursuing.” He said he hopes to have an arrangement worked out that can be presented to the school board for approval at its next meeting, Sep. 22.

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