Town to hire 3 more school security guards

NEW MILFORD — Local police are seeking to hire three armed security guards to be assigned to the town’s schools, according to a posting on a law enforcement recruiting site.

Applicants must be retired municipal, state or federal police officers who are eligible to be certified as armed school security officers in Connecticut and who left their departments in good standing, according to school officials. The job includes up to 40 hours of work with a salary of $25 per hour, the posting said.

The armed guards will report to New Milford Police Chief Spencer Cerruto.

“The responsibilities for this position include carrying out existing district and school procedures and programs related to school security and safety functions,” the job board posting reads.

The advertised positions come a week after the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas that left 21 people dead, including 19 students. The incident was the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook where 20 students and six educators were killed in 2012.

But New Milford Superintendent of Schools Alisha DiCorpo said the plan to hire three more armed security guards has been in the works for months.

“Discussions on this started in September,” DiCorpo said. “This was careful planning on our part.”

The district has had an armed security guard at one of the town’s elementary schools for a few years, DiCorpo said. The three new hires will be located at the town’s other elementary school and at the middle school and high school, which also have school resource officers, DiCorpo said.

“We’ve been pleased with the program,” she said.

New Milford Police Lt. Earl Wheeler described the hires as an “enhancement” to the program, which is now in its second full year. The schools currently have multiple armed school security officers and school resource officers.

Wheeler said the program gives former law enforcement officers, who may have decades of experience with interacting with the public but may no longer want to handle criminal cases, a chance to protect children and foster their growth.

The New Milford Board of Education is scheduled to discuss school security “as well as the deployment of security personnel, and/or devices affecting security in the New Milford Public Schools” in its meeting Thursday night. The discussion is expected to be held in a closed-door executive session, according to the meeting’s agenda.

The hiring also comes after an incident in April when a loaded 9mm “ghost gun” was found in a student’s vehicle after a fight in a school bathroom prompted a search, according to police.