Parent groups, activists and former school board members are at odds over whether the school district should continue spending nearly $400,000 a year for three school resource officers (SROs).

Activists who gathered in front of Kingston High School during a public hearing on SROs last week said the money should be used for something other than SROs.

“I hope they heard us,” Rise Up Kingston organizer Lisa Royer said. “I hope that they know a lot of members of the community want the SROs out, and we want counselors instead of cops in our schools.”

District leaders continue to collect public testimony to help them decide whether they renew the district’s SRO contracts with the Kingston and town of Ulster police departments in 2022.

What You Need To Know

  • Activist groups are pressuring Kingston school officials to do away with SROs and divert the program’s funds to counseling

  • Former school board members are warning officials not to forget about the threat of mass violence in schools

  • The Kingston school board will have the final say on whether to continue, modify or nix the SRO program in 2022

  • The SRO contracts for the coming school year have already been renewed

At the hearing in the Kingston High School auditorium, some parents and recent graduates said SROs are too often called on to control tense situations in classrooms. They believe the district should focus more on “building young people up.”

“There should be no pushback to making this a district where students are given equal opportunities,” Class of 2020 alumna Anayathsyn Castillo said from the podium to a committee of administrators, board members and residents. “We need people to talk to, and those people shouldn’t have guns next to them.”

Others, like former Kingston school board member Julie Dunham, warned the committee not to forget about the possibility of mass violence.

Dunham said concerns that certain students have about police should be addressed, but that police officers’ presence in schools is critical.

“We need to take into account what everybody’s feeling and people not feeling as comfortable with them, and addressing those concerns,” she said. “But don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”

The Kingston school board will have the final say on whether to continue, modify or nix the SRO program in 2022.

The SRO contracts for the coming school year have already been renewed.