Parents in the Holley Central School District concerned with past threats of violence and wary of violence in the future are urging school administrators to take a proactive approach in addressing the safety issues in the district.

Project SAVE, a program legislated by New York state, according to parent Carol Knapp, is supposed to be in place in all schools by July 1, 2001. The program addresses violence in the schools and ways to keep the children, and faculty, safe from harm. The legislation was implemented in reaction to recent shootings in schools throughout the country.

"The board has to be a major part of Project SAVE," Knapp said at a board of education meeting April 24. "There are supposed to be measures in place in the buildings as well as a district wide plan."

Knapp, who has three children in the district, said she was skeptical that a safety committee could be rallied and put in place in a timely enough fashion to meet the July 1 deadline. She indicated that a safety committee met April 11 but the outcomes of that meeting were not known.

"This needs to be in place now," she said. "Our kids and the staff are entitled to a safe environment and we don’t seem to have one here."

A letter was sent to the police and fire chiefs as well as school officials outlining concerns the parents have about the safety issues facing the district. Knapp said they heard back from Police Chief Michael Grattan and Fire Chief Jeff Lavender but had been unable to have conversations with school administrators.

Village of Holley Mayor Lewis Passarell urged the board to consider having a police officer in the district on a full time basis. He informed the board that grant funds were available that would allow the district to place a police officer in the school system in a grant funded position. While the grant has not been applied for yet, it is an option Passarell urged district officials and board members to investigate.

"There have been a lot of incidents of violence that have happened in suburban schools, like ours," he said. "Prevention is a very important component in stemming the violence."

Grattan said the police department is concerned not only with the number of calls they are receiving, but with the seriousness of the types of calls they are responding to within the schools.

"We would be remiss in our duties if we didn’t do what we can to address these issues," he said.

The cost of placing an officer in the schools on a full-time basis would be approximately $35,000. If the school was successful in obtaining a grant, the salary would be covered for a three-year period with the school agreeing to pick it up for the fourth year. Grattan indicated that Officer Sevor, the department’s D.A.R.E. officer, would be the logical choice as the full-time officer for the district.

"He is certified and he is already known by many of the children in the school," Grattan said.

Board member John Penna agreed that while the district needed to address the safety issues confronting the schools, the board would have to look into various ways of addressing the issue. "We can’t just make a decision here tonight," he said.

Holley Teacher’s Association President Anne Smith said that safety should be of the utmost importance to everyone in the room. "We have to attack this problem and work on the safety issues that are affecting our schools," she said.

Smith also voiced concerns that faculty at the elementary level were kept in the dark about acts of violence that were occurring at the secondary level. "I had to hear about it from one of my students who told me about a letter that had been sent home to her parents," she said. "When people are uninformed they build on rumors."

She urged board members and administration to be up front about what is going on, in all the buildings within the district.

"We don’t want to work in isolation," she said. "We don’t want to be looking back saying we could have, should have, would have."