Schenectady board approves three-year public services agreement with city covering police, fire and community engagement officers

Schenectady — The Schenectady City School District Board of Education voted 4–2 with one abstention on July 16 to approve a three-year public services agreement with the City of Schenectady that combines police and fire services, funds community engagement officers (CEOs) assigned to schools and adds programs intended to link students to law enforcement and emergency-services careers.

The agreement is billed as a “city services” contract that replaces and expands the district’s prior police-only arrangement. Speakers at the board meeting said the contract adds the fire department to the scope, formalizes the CEO program, clarifies responsibilities for false alarms and extracurricular coverage, and includes Pathways initiatives to introduce students to careers in policing, firefighting, EMS and related fields.

Board members and staff described the contract as a single, lump-sum arrangement intended to simplify prior separate bills for officer coverage at events, false-alarm responses and other city-provided services. Deputy Superintendent Joe DiCaprio and Director of School Climate and Safety Jeff Russo said the contract also shifts language away from “zero tolerance” disciplinary phrasing toward a relationship framed around engagement, support and shared responsibility.

“...we’ve shifted away from punitive zero-tolerance approaches toward a model rooted in partnership, support, and respect,” Russo said during the presentation. The contract also proposes clearer protocols for body-worn camera footage and roles for an investigator who can respond inside schools.

Chiefs from both departments described program elements the board called Pathways. Police personnel described the LEAP (Law Enforcement Engagement Program) club and school trips that introduce students to patrol, investigations, courts and allied careers; the fire department said it wants to expand annual fire-safety visits, provide CPR and Stop the Bleed training, and pursue an EMT pathway tied to a potential CTE program.

Chief Kevin Clifford said the City asked that a single global agreement cover services previously billed separately and that the arrangement was intended to be mutually beneficial. “We tried to combine a lot of the different services and put it all together in one contract,” Clifford said. He added the district would no longer receive separate bills for many routine services once the contract takes effect.

Several board members pressed for financial detail. Board member Vivian Parsons asked for a ballpark of prior separate bills; Chief Clifford said he would need to work with the district finance office to provide exact figures. Deputy Superintendent DiCaprio said the fire department’s analysis estimated roughly $40,000–$50,000 in services such as training and first-aid instruction, and that persistent false alarms had produced quarters with thousands of dollars in charges. Vice President Jamaica Miles summarized terms the board received: a $500,000 three-year lump-sum agreement, described during the meeting as roughly $200,000 higher than the previous contract amount, and subject to a 2% annual increase in subsequent academic years. Board members and staff said a detailed line-item breakdown was not included in the packet and would require follow-up with the city’s budget office.

The meeting recorded extended public and board questioning about the district’s relationship with police officers inside schools. Board member Jamaica Miles and others raised recent incidents that they said signaled a need for stronger transparency and accountability. Miles referenced public accounts about officer actions during a recent Summer Night event and a separate episode in which an officer discharged a firearm while a child was experiencing a mental-health crisis. “We should know what has been happening and what has been done to address the violence that has already happened against our students,” she said.

Chief Clifford disputed some public characterizations of those events and said internal and external oversight mechanisms exist, including a civilian police review board and the city’s public safety commissioner. “I have a reputation that I believe carries some weight in this community where I will not allow my officers to harm anybody in this community. If they do, they will be held accountable,” he said.

Board members also asked whether the police department had any relationship with Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Clifford replied, “We do not work with ICE.” The board discussed that CEOs generally serve alongside school security and that CEOs have been used to reduce unnecessary full-department responses to school 911 calls because CEOs can often assess and cancel larger responses while already on site.

Several board members and the chiefs described tangible benefits the district has seen from on-site CEOs: more rapid on-scene response to emergencies, fewer multi-unit 911 dispatches, assistance with traffic and event control at extracurricular events, and programs that hand-hold students toward civil-service careers. The fire department said it is currently short approximately 12 members and saw the Pathways idea as a recruitment and workforce pipeline opportunity.

After discussion the board president called for a roll-call vote. The minutes record the explicit roll-call responses as follows: Alexandria Carver — abstain; Jamaica Miles — no; Vivian Parsons — yes; Bernice Rivera — yes; Amanda Sponable Pantoloff — yes. The meeting transcript and chair’s announcement record the final tally as 4 in favor, 2 opposed and 1 abstention; the board declared the motion carried and approved the public services contract.

The board and district staff said additional financial detail and a line-item breakdown would be provided after the meeting. Staff also told board members they would follow up on outstanding questions about staffing levels, exact prior-billing totals and the contract’s detailed allocation between police, fire and CEO services.

What’s next: Board members asked for continued reporting on contract implementation, staffing of the six CEO positions, and updates on any investigations into officer conduct that relate to district students.