New school safety officers to be tested

The city plans to begin testing new school safety officers before they are allowed to patrol the halls of the borough's schools.
The plan, organized by City Councilmember Joseph Addabbo, the school safety agents' union Local 237, and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), is set to go on the books in February 2007, and testing will begin in May 2007.
At a hearing last year with Civil Service and Labor Committee of the Council, which Addabbo chairs, the union proposed that school safety officers be tested - just as all other city Civil Service employees are before donning their badges.
&#8220The school safety officers are really the front lines of our schools … and they weren't being recognized,” Addabbo said.
Besides being limited in their promotion opportunities, the 4,300 agents had a high turnover rate and low morale. In the past five years, the agents had a 50 percent turnover rate.
As the only peace officers in the city who were not tested on their knowledge and skills, they were somewhat looked down upon, said Gregory Floyd, Secretary Treasurer of Local 237, which represents all of the school safety agents, as well as about 19,000 other city employees.
&#8220When you look at all of these groups that are peace officers, it kind of puts a stigma on the group that is not tested,” Floyd said.
When testing is put into place, the job will offer higher recognition, which in turn will attract more competitive candidates who place a higher value on their employment, he said.
In addition, the testing could remove any back-door deals, and give an equal opportunity to all applicants to become school safety agents.
&#8220Those who get jobs through patronage don't always work as hard as those who earned their jobs,” he said.
&#8220This really is a win-win for the school safety officers, some of whom have put their lives on the line in our tougher schools,” Addabbo said.
As part of the agreement, the officers will also receive Civil Service benefits. The DCAS announced that they would formally reclassify the agents as Civil Service employees two weeks ago.
As the agreement with the union and DCAS now stands, only new school safety officers will be tested, but Floyd said that he hopes current employees can be grandfathered in to the new civil servant status.
That decision, however, is left up to the DCAS.
&#8220The men and the woman who are school safety agents really deserve that honor and the privilege of being civil servants,” Floyd said.