MANALAPAN – The Pine Brook School and the Manalapan Englishtown Middle School (MEMS) will each have an armed police officer on duty in the building every day beginning in September.
According to an agreement signed by Mayor Jack McNaboe and by representatives of the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District, Manalapan Police Chief Michael Fountain will assign a Class III special law enforcement officer (SLEO) to the Pine Brook School, which educates all sixth-graders in the district, and a Class III SLEO to MEMS, which educates all seventh- and eighth-graders in the district.
A Class III SLEO is a retired law enforcement officer who is employed by the Manalapan Police Department. The SLEO “shall have full powers and duties similar to those of a permanent, regularly appointed full-time police officer while providing security at schools in the township, ” according to the agreement.
In its first year, the agreement is expected to cost the school district $37,233 per Class III officer, according to information provided by the township.
In authorizing the agreement with the school district, members of the Township Committee said that “providing a safe and secure environment for the school students of Manalapan is of critical importance to the township and its residents.”
Committee members said they were “willing and prepared to share costs to provide for the assignment of SLEO to any or all of our schools, as may be requested by the Board of Education.”
The school board asked the township to provide an SLEO at Pine Brook and at MEMS.
Superintendent of Schools John J. Marciante Jr. said, “For the immediate future the board has decided to go with a two-pronged approach to security. Overall it was felt that due to the age of the students at the secondary level it was more appropriate to have the Class III officers in Pine Brook and MEMS.
“The security in the remaining six buildings will also be retired law enforcement officers, but they will be school district employees. At this time this is felt to be more cost-effective considering the significant budget challenges the district will face over the next seven years. The overall security initiative will be evaluated at the end of the year and at that time the board will re-evaluate its decision,” Marciante said.
The agreement comes several months after residents approached both public bodies and requested that armed officers be placed in the district’s schools. The agreement states that “in the event the district determines additional officers are needed, the township shall provide such additional officers to the district as soon as practicable.”
The agreement will renew annually for an additional three one-year terms, unless either the township or the school district states its intention not to renew the agreement.
