Riverhead schools, town will share $417,000 cost of armed officers in 2024-25, town says
Riverhead’s town and school district will share a combined cost of about $417,000 to post an armed school resource officer in each of the district’s two secondary schools during the 2024-25 academic year, according to a town official.
The plan to station special police officers at Riverhead High School and Riverhead Middle School, starting this fall, was confirmed late last month by school officials. At the time, those officials said costs would be divided, without specifying dollar figures.
More recently, the town’s financial administrator, Jeanette DiPaola, who is handling fiscal calculations, provided figures at Newsday’s request.
According to DiPaola, the school district in 2024-25 will pay $104,000, or half the cost of one officer. The town will pay the remaining $313,000. DiPaola added that costs represented a combination of employee salaries and benefits such as health insurance, with benefits amounting to about 75% of salaries.
For the 2025-26 school year, the district will pay 50% of total costs of approximately $418,000, DiPaola said. The town will pay an equal amount.
Riverhead’s schools superintendent, Cheryl Pedisich, issued a statement Friday saying the town has not met with the school district or formally notified it of what the costs will be.
Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard, in an interview Thursday, underlined the issue of safety. "I think every student deserves to go to school and feel safe when they're at school," he said.
Resource officers, or SROs as they are known, are typically regular police authorized to carry sidearms. In Riverhead, funds were allocated in 2018-19 for an officer at the high school, but the program was later shelved.
The first announcement of the new joint town / district effort came four months ago, during an annual State of the Town address by Hubbard. In that speech, he focused on a number of town projects and upgrades, including school security.
“This program not only makes our schools safe, but it builds community relationships with law enforcement,” Hubbard said in his April 9 address.
School officials have said that assigned officers, in addition to providing protection, will teach special classes in subjects such as crime prevention and drug and alcohol education. Officials added that SROs are already familiar to students, having been involved in a Council for Unity class.
"We are excited about the opportunities the SROs present for our students," Pedisich stated last month.
A Newsday analysis, published May 13, found that at least 20 districts had either hired armed guards for their campuses or planned to do so. Some districts contract for guards through private companies; others use their own employees.
Newsday found that total costs of guards varied greatly from district to district.
In Half Hollow Hills, the estimated annual cost of hiring a private company is $1 million, with a $50 hourly rate. In West Islip, which uses its own employees, the additional cost for 12 armed guards is about $100,000 per year.
Riverhead’s latest decision to upgrade security followed a series of incidents in 2023-24, including an altercation in which one high school student sprayed a second with pepper spray. Parents and students alike had requested enhanced safety.
Town Councilman Ken Rothwell, who supported the SRO plan, said the town and school district were “equally committed to providing the utmost safety for the children in our schools.”
John Hildebrand is Newsday's senior education writer and has covered school news and policy issues affecting Long Island for more than 40 years.
