Schools Seek More Security Staff

The number of security guards in city public schools is down 44 percent in more than a decade, resulting in a shortage that sometimes forces the district to shuffle officers around to multiple schools over the course of a single day.

That security staffing issue was one of the topics discussed at the Board of Alders Education Committee’s workshop with New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) leadership during the committee’s Wednesday meeting, held in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.

The district currently has 56 security officers, NHPS Supt. Madeline Negrón told alders, a ​“significant reduction” from 100 in 2010 — though she hopes to hire four more security guards with money allotted in the Fiscal Year 2024 – 25 (FY25) budget.

In addition to security officers, Negrón said that the district currently has six school resource officers (SRO’s) — uniformed New Haven police who provide additional security.

Negrón attributed the decreased security staffing to ​“budget mitigation,” saying that the shortage is a product of ​“lots of little cuts” over the past 14 years. 

The superintendent explained that every school has at least one assigned security officer, and the rest are distributed based on the size and needs of the school, with larger high schools like Hillhouse and Wilbur Cross having the highest staffing.

When pressed by Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller on what proper staffing levels would look like, district leaders said they had conducted an analysis, but did not provide a specific number of officers they are aiming for.

“I don’t have the number in front of me, but [the goal] is to have multiple officers in all of our buildings,” Asst. Supt. Paul Whyte told Miller. 

For Fair Haven Alder Frank Redente, Jr., who works at Fair Haven School, the lack of proper security staffing is a daily issue. According to Redente, the one officer assigned to the school — ​“one of the best people I’ve ever worked with” — starts work at 8 a.m., and teachers arriving earlier had raised concerns about feeling unsafe.

“We have homeless folks outside our building. We have drug-addicted folks outside our building,” Redente said. ​“There were numerous emails for the past couple of years that were going back and forth about teachers not feeling comfortable.”

Redente, who currently serves as the school’s youth development coordinator, said he had started coming in at 7:30 a.m. to ensure there was someone present in the morning. He also noted that Fair Haven School’s security guard is often pulled to other schools in the morning to help with metal detectors.

“Fair Haven is the largest K‑8 school in the district, but routinely, [our officer] will get pulled,” Redente said. ​“I could never understand how Fair Haven could be left without someone.” 

NHPS Director of Security Thaddeus Reddish agreed with Redente that administering metal detectors at high schools was a particularly difficult staffing issue. Reddish said NHPS often had officers start their day at 7 a.m. working metal detectors at a high school, before going to cover the school they were assigned, to minimize disruptions.

Negrón explained that any solution to the shortage would have to come from the district being ​“intentional with every budget moving forward,” to slowly build up the number of guards.

After the meeting, Redente recalled that there were four security guards when he started working at Fair Haven School in 1995, and how there being less makes for a much more chaotic arrival and dismissal. 

Miller told the Independent that the ​“number one thing” she gets calls about from parents is schools not having enough security. Redente agreed.

“I understand all about the budget and how it affects staffing,” Redente said. ​“I would just like to see more creative problem-solving around schools like Fair Haven that cannot afford to ever have no security.”