Letter: Derby Mayor's Office Won't Allow School Security Spending On Local Legislative Agenda

To the Editor:

When I ran for the Derby Board of Education, I did so believing that one of my main goals would be to ensure that the students within the Derby public school system were able to attend schools that provided a safe and secure learning environment. After the countless school tragedies through the years, I can think of no more important endeavor.

Through the course of my first eight months on the Derby Board of Education we have worked with a well-known, distinguished school security expert in the way of Gary MacNamara, former Police Chief of the City of Fairfield and current Director of Public Safety at Sacred Heart University. Full school assessments were conducted to help us understand what we could do to make our schools even more secure, as our district has made this a priority for years. They focused on training, camera surveillance, signage and other security measures.

With that as a backdrop, we thought it would be wise to talk to the Dziekan administration and the Board of Alders and update them on our progress as some of our initiatives may cost money which we may need to go to referendum for. We thought this was an easy ask, to simply add this topic to the agenda of a Board of Alders meeting. 

With much surprise, we were told by the Dziekan administration that we could not talk to the Board of Alders about our safety and security initiatives because they did not want these topics to get confused with the road paving package they were trying to get through to referendum so they could have paving in place prior to Rich Dziekan‘s next election. 

As a resident of this town, I was disappointed that the safety and security of our children would take a backseat to an election day ploy. This is not about the roads, but the fact that our safety and security measures are taking a backseat so that Rich Dziekan can send out an election day brochure before the next election showing a road getting paved. 

By delaying a conversation on school safety and security, this administration increases the risk that there will be no money available from the state for reimbursement to help our town offset the cost of such measures. 

I urge this administration to place a greater emphasis on the safety and security of our children and not election day gimmicks in an effort to get reelected. I urge Rich Dziekan to place this topic on the next Board of Alders agenda. 

Melissa Mongillo
Derby Board of Education

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