School Board Approves 4 Monitors for Fox Lane MS

The Bedford Central School District's Board of Education approved four security monitors for Fox Lane Middle School at Wednesday's meeting, according to a recording of it.

The unanimous vote means that four new district employees will be hired, with their effective dates ranging from March 4-11. Their salaries will each be $28,912.00, prorated for $10,986.56. 

The monitors, Superintendent Jere Hochman told Patch, will serve the same roles as monitors at Fox Lane High School, in that they will be supervising students. The monitors will be full-time supervision for the middle school's house buildings and common areas, Hochman stated.

The monitors will provide work in addition to that of a newly hired security company, Summit Security Services, will be provide permiter patrols of the district's schools and was approved in late February by the school board.

Police in Bedford, Mount Kisco and Pound Ridge are also providing various levels of support for the schools, Hochman recently told Patch.

The hiring of the monitors is actually a restoration of personnel. Hochman told Patch that middle school monitors had been cut in the past. At the board meeting, Assistant Superintendent for Business Mark Betz said there were two monitors at the middle school, while Hochman, at that meeting, said there were six at the high school.

Betz told the school board that there are several security measures being eyed. The topic has taken on a new sense of urgency in Bedford Central since the mass school shooting in December in nearby Newtown, CT.

“We're addressing some of those what we call 'no brainers,' because they need to be addressed right away," Betz said at the meeting, adding that the monitors fell into the no-brainer category.

Betz also told the board that there is no long-term commitment to the monitors, but they are trying to see to utilize them for the “remainder of this particular year and whether they serve the safety purpose that we'd like to have them in place for.”