Fort Lee Superintendent Returns, Says He Wants Police in Every School
Steven Engravalle said he would reach out to Fort Lee’s police chief to discuss plans for continued school security in the wake of the deadly school shooting in Newtown, Conn., as parents expressed strong concerns Monday.
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Fort Lee’s Superintendent of Schools, attending his first public school board meeting since finishing his two-month leave of absence, said Monday that school security should be a priority, especially in the wake of the deadly school shooting in Newtown, Conn. in December, and that if he had it his way, there would be a police officer in every public school building in the Fort Lee district.
Superintendent Steven Engravalle also pledged to reach out to the Chief of the Fort Lee Police Department Tuesday.
The issue of security was first raised at Monday’s special business meeting by new board member David Sarnoff, who noted that committee assignments were made earlier in the evening, and that he is now on the security committee, along with Esther Han Silver and Joseph Surace.
Saying he had spent a lot of time prior to the meeting reviewing a 2011 security audit, Sarnoff said the issue was “certainly an urgent and crucial topic that’s on not only the school district’s mind but the community’s mind.”
“The security committee is going to schedule a meeting with [Engravalle] Tuesday, and I believe there’s a meeting later in the week with law enforcement and first responders and the mayor as well,” Sarnoff said. “I want the community to know that the board is being active on security issues.”
Engravalle said he believes the only way to prevent tragedies such as the one that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School is to have “the threat and presence of a trained law enforcement officer,” although he also said school officials “can never be 100 percent sure of anything.”
“Not a security guard, but a trained Fort Lee police officer in this instance,” Engravalle said, adding that he wasn’t sure how the community would react to such a stance. “I’d love to have a police officer in every building who is part of the community in the building itself … I’d love to have one in each building.”
Engravalle said that he had specific ideas he plans to take up with Fort Lee Police Chief Keith Bendul and Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, but that he couldn’t go into details at Monday’s public meeting.
“I would do everything in my power to put a police officer in each building,” Engravalle said. “I think that’s the only way to do it.”
Board president Yusang Park said the board wants to have a “systematic plan and actions and procedures in place” to ensure the safety of all students and staff members.
“I think that we will be taking care of that as a district and as a committee,” Park said.
But several parents expressed strong concerns that since the first week after the tragedy in Newtown, they haven’t seen much police presence around their children’s schools, if any at all.
“We can’t keep having meetings,” said one parent, making reference to an incident at Fort Lee School No. 3 last year in which a Fort Lee principal was attacked. “Something’s got to be done. The parents deserve it; the children deserve it.”
Surace said that when it comes to school security, everybody in the district plays a role, and that putting police officers in school buildings might not necessarily solve the problem. Illustrating that point, Surace said, “You can put 10 cops at the front door,” but that if someone breaks in a back window that was left open when it should have been closed, the result could be devastating in spite of the officers’ presence.
“Security is everybody’s job, whether you’re a janitor, whether you’re a teacher or an administrator,” Surace said.
Board member Candace Romba said she believes that after what happened in Connecticut, Fort Lee residents “would be very happy if there at least was a police officer.”
“I know it’s money, but I’m certain that we can make a phone call and just have extra police just on their regular duty driving around,” Romba said.
“I’m going to reach out to ask that it be done tomorrow,” Engravalle replied.
Monday’s special business meeting was supposed to have been to award vendor contracts for professional services, including appointing a board attorney, construction attorney and labor attorney, but there was no agenda and therefore nothing for the board to vote on. As it turns out, that will have to wait until Thursday.
“We have to make the right decision in a timely manner; not a quick decision,” Park said, announcing that yet another special meeting will take place on Thursday at 8 p.m.
School officials issued a notice for Thursday’s meeting shortly after Monday’s meeting started.
“Those positions will be interviewed on Thursday, and we will be coming out to public meeting at [8 p.m.],” Park said. “And by then, hopefully, we will be able to appoint those three positions that are critically and most crucially needed.”
In This article
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Fort Lee Police Department
1325 16th St, Fort Lee, NJ -
Fort Lee School No. 3
2405 2nd St, Fort Lee, NJ -
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Howard L. Pearl
8:56 am on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Police in every school will give parents a greater sense of security. Unfortunately, in reality, there is no guaranteed way to prevent a tragedy like Newtown.
Shawn Arnone
2:43 pm on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Howard, you are correct, there are no guarantees in the prevention of violence but, law enforcement presence, in any situation, always makes people think twice about breaking the law. And, when it comes to our school children, faculty and staff, if an officer present reduces the chances of this happening by 1/1000th of a percent, it is the best money we, as a school district / community can spend!
Municipal Government, School Administrators and Staff and Community Leaders need to come together TODAY, not next week or whenever a meeting can be scheduled but TODAY! Our children deserve the safest environment to learn in and we must make this priority #1.
William Mays
3:55 pm on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Yes, one cop with a pistol is going to stop an AR-15. You don't need to be a gun expert to know that that won't happen.
Tracy Mattei
5:27 pm on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
First, how can you have a BOE meeting with no agenda?? what was the purpose? what got accomplished? other than venting and speculating? Really what? This article didn't even touch on the problems that have been introduced to our district in the past week..I hope the four newbies begin to voice their opinions to stop this nonsense! - common sense needs to prevail! The FLSD does not have a legal vendor or an engineering vendor, the curricula is not approved, the policies and procedures are not approved, there are no goals for the BOE but money was spent without regard on two meetings in seven days( Approx 6k) , ethics codes are obviously being pushed to limits and now you are going into FLEA negotiation soon...get it together, stop blaming each other and make some progress!
It may inspire me back into blogging once again..
Second, the security issues in Ft Lee are far more involved than trying to prevent one type of intrusion. It was horrific and could not have been prevented by anyone at the Newtown school. However, we have a chance to correct the ills that plague our own schools. Let's read the security study that was done by Mr. Engravalle some time ago. Those security issues still remain for the most part. You all can name a few!
Having a police officer is not on MY top five corrections that need to be made in Ft Lee SD, but updating and adhering to policy is-- we need to begin there! Then when the town has $ for cops/SRO’s, it would be comfort to all.
Shawn Arnone
8:40 pm on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Tracy, with all due respect, I could care less about agendas, curriculum policy and procedures, yada , yada, yada. My child, your child and everyone else's children deserve to be SAFE and SECURE at ALL TIMES! And, I agree, it should not be in your top five, it should be ABOVE your top five by leaps and bounds!
As for security studies, I am not privy to it, know nothing about the company that did it but, we have one of the finest well equipped and well trained police forces in the county who, I am quite confident could have provided a comprehensive security assessment with recommendations at little or no cost. In the end, they are the ones to secure the schools so, I feel they would know best.
Lets stop the taking sides approach here and come together as a community and get this done. No politics, no press opportunities, just the simple concept of putting our kids safety and security first!
WC
5:41 pm on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Did the Supt indicate whether the police officers would be paid for by BOE or by Township?
Tracy Mattei
6:14 pm on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
new article-- on front page of patch....
Quin
8:50 pm on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Police presence makes sensible people obey the law....and walking into a school and murdering 27 people is not sensible.
Tracy Mattei
9:32 pm on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Shawn-- you need to re read my post. The yada yada yada's are WHAT define a safe environment in our children's schools. If the BOE doesn't define and regulate policy and procedure you will have no secure enviroments, at any level, you will have compromised security at multiple levels.
You are very clearly taking sides and inflaming issues without knowledge of education or educational management . School security IS NOT limited to the facility - not at all-- it goes far beyond that.
I will agree that FLPD is excellent but they are not experts in educational procedure/ policy or expectation. Having police presence does not remedy failure of upholding policy or even good common sense. Please call Mr. Engravalle and perhaps view the security presentation that was done by the experts in school safety and security.
Shawn Arnone
10:00 pm on Tuesday, January 8, 2013
The only side i am taking is the side of the children. Mr Engravalle was very excited about me raising this issue ladt night and asked that i contact him to discuss it further. I immediately emailed him last night with my contact info and followed up with a phone message this morning. I am looking forward to him returning my messages and helping him any way I can with this issue.
As for the Security Audit, please tell me how you got access to it as I would love to review it. And, once I review, I'd be happy to get together with you and see how we can help together.
Baba O'Riley
11:52 am on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Nothing will stop a determined criminal but you need a deterent. Best bet would be to have the FLPD in each of the 7 schools / centers as mentioned (when school is in session) rotating the assigments so all patrolmen would be involded. This should not be a drain on manpower and when school is not in session they would resume their "traditional" police duties. This should also help their public perception as being a member of the community.
Tracy Mattei
3:42 pm on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Shawn-- that would be great.
Rona
8:09 am on Thursday, January 10, 2013
This should be a temporary setup just like the George Washington Bridge after 9/11 with the military & national guard being present. Once better security measures were instituted they were removed. If we make progress with gun laws then I think the same should occur here.
Ryan
11:43 am on Friday, January 11, 2013
every school should have security guards in the parking lot as well. The high school has it and they look at id and write down your name and license plate numbers. It's not much but it is a first line of defense. Schools now have teachers doing hall duty and it isn't right to have them in harms way.