Groups urge nix on hiring school officers

More than 100 civil rights and education advocacy groups urged city officials Wednesday to scrap a plan to hire nearly 500 new school safety agents, arguing the money should be used instead to beef up emotional support staff for students.

“Hiring officers instead of addressing needs that educate and nurture students is the wrong move — and we are calling on you to cancel these planned hires,” the groups, including the New York Civil Liberties Union, wrote in a letter.

News of the planned school safety hires surfaced during a City Council hearing last week, when Kenyatte Reid, the executive director of the Education Department’s Office of Safety and Youth Development, sharply criticized the move.

“Four hundred seventy-five new agents account for almost $20 million,” he said during the hearing. “Imagine if we used that [money] for restorative justice coordinators ... for social workers, for guidance counselors,” Reid said.

Mayor de Blasio reiterated Wednesday he has not made a final decision about whether to hire the new officers.

“We are adding, constantly, additional mental health supports into our schools,” he added.

City Council Education Committee Chairman Mark Treyger said the proposal is a “nonstarter” and would violate an agreement with the City Council to freeze the hiring of new school safety agents this year.

Advocacy organizations pointed out in the letter the estimated $20 million it would cost to hire the new safety agents could instead be used to hire more than 200 school nurses, psychologists or guidance counselors.

The city spends roughly $450 million for the more-than5,000-strong school safety force.

In addition to staffing buildings open for in-person school, the safety agents monitor school buildings used for food distribution and Learning Bridges child care programs.