PARSIPPANY — Mayor Michael Soriano and the Township Council – Michael dePierro, Loretta Gragnani, Paul Carifi, Jr., Janice McCarthy, and Emily Peterson – provided a proposal response to the Parsippany-Troy Hills Board of Education today, addressing funding for the School Resource & Special Law Enforcement Officer Class III program in township schools. The details of the new proposal include many of the current terms, with changes to come in the near future.
The Director of School Security will be eliminated from the agreement, allocating that salary back into the SRO-SLEO program budget to help pay the salaries of the officers in the schools.
For the SRO Program, there will be no changes to the officer program funding for the first year (July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022). The second and third years of the agreement will see the Board of Education bear 50% of the actual program cost, which includes SRO base salary, any allowances, uniforms costs, training and equipment expenses, overtime, longevity, and fringe benefits incurred for each officer.
For SLEO III officers, the Board of Education will pay $35 per hour for the first year (July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022). Starting in year two, the Board of Education will pay the hourly rate established by the ordinance.
“We have sensitivities to the difficulties to the Board of Education’s budgeting process,” said Business Administrator Fred Carr. “Since their budget has already been established for the new fiscal year, it wouldn’t be fair to change the terms without allowing them the ability to adjust their planning, but sharing the true costs of this program 50/50 after this year is the right thing to do.”
The Board of Education will be allowed to terminate the agreement at any time prior to the adoption of its budget.
“This has always been about how the program is funded between our civic partners,” said Mayor Soriano. “This is a non-partisan proposal that all six of us – three republicans and three democrats – agree on. Our shared services make our township strong, and the more we collaborate equally, the better our whole community is.”
