Lakeland SRO program faces uncertain future amid rising costs

This article was updated on Wednesday, April 8, at 4:08 p.m. to include additional information from Town of Cortlandt Supervisor Richard Becker, and again at 4:56 p.m. to clarify that Building Emergency Response Teams (BERT) integration—not interrogation—is a role of the SRO program at Lakeland. On Thursday, April 9, at 1:17 p.m., the article was further updated to include a reply from Chief of Police Robert Noble.

School resource officers (SROs) are more than a critical line of defense for students; they're part of the fabric of going to school—friendly faces who get to know students and also happen to be highly trained in providing security in an educational environment.

In Lakeland, the popular program is in danger of disappearing.

The district's contracts with Yorktown and Westchester County police—which provide SROs for the Lakeland CSD's Yorktown and Cortlandt schools respectively—are set to expire at the end of this school year. And with budgeting pressure and increasing costs, the negotiations to renew the pacts have hit an impasse.

The issue was front and center at the district's March 26 School Board meeting, where parents and police officers came out in force to urge the board to keep SROs in the schools.

Parents say the five Yorktown police officers across the Lakeland schools in town—Brian Nicholson (Lakeland High School), Joyce Pagliuca (George Washington Elementary School), Michael Pietraniello (Benjamin Franklin Elementary School), Samantha Dubray (Thomas Jefferson Elementary School), and Rob Pavletich (Lakeland Copper Beech Middle School)—do more than provide security.

They build trust, guide students, and serve as mentors. They also help foster connections between students and law enforcement that last well beyond the school day.

Yorktown Police Chief Robert Noble told the board that SROs have specialized experience, certifications, and expertise that make their presence invaluable.

“The commitment to training is our number one priority at the Yorktown Police Department, and it enables us to keep your children—the students of these schools—that much safer,” Noble said.

Parents showed their appreciation several times during the meeting by applauding the Yorktown SROs. Some also spoke up in support.

NYPD Sgt. Anton Gjeloshi—parent of two children at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School—has a degree in education but said he chose law enforcement to serve the public “like our SROs do on a daily basis" and urged the board to keep the program alive.

Gjeloshi said he has to deliver bad news to victims' families all too often.

“I never want that to be anyone in the school district,” Gjeloshi said. “Taking these critical officers off of our [schools'] front door steps ... would be the biggest mistake this school district could ever make. From anything and everything, they cover it all.

"Parents want to know that their children are safe when they are going to school," he added. "Parents want to know that when their kids are being dropped off in a line Mr. Mike [Officer Pietraniello] is there to greet them. He’s there to protect them.

“It all boils down to one thing: safety and security. That is the only thing that matters.”

In his presentation to the board, Noble noted the ways SROs—who have specialized training—enhance school security. He explained that officers play a key role in preventing problems, responding quickly in emergencies, and working closely with school staff and local agencies.

He also pointed to the program’s role in identifying and addressing issues early through things like security reviews, monitoring potential concerns, and assessing threats before they escalate. Noble described how SROs support emergency planning by using their knowledge of each campus to identify vulnerabilities and prepare practical response plans.

Noble’s presentation highlighted the SRO program’s role in enhancing school security through deterrence, emergency response, Building Emergency Response Teams (BERT) integration, proactive planning and agency coordination. He noted the program’s contributions to preventative problem solving, including security assessments, early intervention, collaborative planning, digital monitoring and threat assessment.

“In today's educational environment, the speed of emergency response can make a critical difference in incident outcomes,” Noble said. "Having an SRO on campus provides schools with immediate response capabilities during critical situations, potentially saving precious minutes when every second counts.”

But funding the program is especially complicated for Lakeland because the district includes multiple towns. The towns negotiate contracts with the school districts to cover the costs of the services. Each school district is responsible for paying the salaries and benefits of the police officers during the school year. Contracts last five years and require a five-year notice, allowing the department to absorb any losses through attrition. The current discrepancy lies in the pricing between the Yorktown and Westchester County police departments, which handles Cortlandt, and the requested increase for this contract.

Superintendent of Schools Karen Gagliardi said in a March 19 district update that as Lakeland develops its budget for the upcoming school year, the district must “carefully evaluate many programs and make difficult financial decisions.”

District officials said the town's most recent contract proposal reflects an approximately 80 percent cost increase to continue the program next year.

“Because of this significant increase, the district must evaluate the sustainability of the program as part of the overall budget process,” Gagliardi wrote on March 19.

While it's located in Yorktown Heights, Lakeland Copper Beech Middle School serves a large number of students from both Yorktown and Cortlandt (with some also coming from the towns of Carmel and Putnam Valley).

Previously, both Yorktown and Cortlandt contributed to SRO funding. But the Town of Cortlandt has backed out of funding the Copper Beech SRO, YPD Officer Pavletich. SROs in Cortlandt’s other schools are provided by the Westchester County Police. 

On Wednesday, April 8, Town of Cortlandt Supervisor Richard Becker alerted Yorktown News to an email he sent on Tuesday, March 31, in response to a request for comment regarding SROs. Yorktown News did not receive the email at the time. We subsequently discovered that aggressive spam filters prevented his email from coming through. The email has since been received, and Yorktown News has spoken with Supervisor Becker by phone.

In his email, Supervisor Becker said that the Town of Cortlandt “never provided funding for SROs that are members of the Westchester County Police Department.”

He added that it has “always been the Lakeland Central School District’s responsibility" and noted that the district “is able to raise funds for SROs directly through taxation.”

Becker did confirm, at one time, the Town of Cortlandt shared the cost of one-third of a Yorktown police officer assigned to Lakeland Copper Beech Middle School.

His full letter can be read here.

On Thursday, April 9, Noble called Yorktown News and said he stands by his presentation at the school board meeting. He replied to Supervisor Becker’s comments, saying that he “conveniently left out” that the Town of Cortlandt withdrew from the eighth-grade D.A.R.E. program at Cooper Beech last year.

Noble added that “one town greatly values the partnership and relationship keeping our children as safe as possible in our schools while another town chooses to rely on technicalities.”

The exact increases to the town and the police department were not immediately clear, but Yorktown Town Supervisor Ed Lachterman told the Board of Education that the increase is due to higher insurance and benefits costs for the officers, as well as a 3 percent salary increase under the current contract.

As a point of reference, Yorktown Central School District’s 2026–27 SRO contract totals $946,439 for five officers across five schools—Yorktown High School, Mildred E. Strang Middle School, and Crompond, Brookside, and Mohansic Elementary Schools.

News 12 Westchester reported on April 2 that county officials said the Lakeland program is expected to increase from about $500,000 to more than $800,000—a 68 percent increase. Yorktown News reached out to the county to independently confirm the figures and did not receive a response as of press time.

Members of the school board said they remain committed to keeping SROs in schools. BOE Vice President Michael Daly said the program was originally created to provide an extra layer of protection following tragedies in other districts across the country.

Daly said Cortlandt's decision not to contribute to the program has put the district in a difficult situation and praised Lachterman (who was at Lakeland's March 26 BOE meeting) for trying to find a solution.

"You, along with [Assemblyman] Matt Slater, have made a lot of efforts behind the scenes to contact the county executive and to try to move the county contract forward,” Daly said. “Cortlandt sat silent. They did nothing—you, without having any constituents on Cortlandt’s side of town, rose to the occasion. It's not lost on me.”

Daly added that he would “have a lot more respect for the county and the Town of Cortlandt if they just stood up and said we don’t want SROs.”

Instead, he said, they threw “a big pile of stink on us.”

But County Executive Ken Jenkins rejected Daly's characterization.

In an op-ed submitted to Yorktown News, Jenkins said: “When a Lakeland School Board member claims that ‘Westchester doesn’t care about SROs for school safety,’ it is not only inaccurate — it is frankly offensive to the dedicated professionals who show up every day for our kids.”

Jenkins added that the SRO program is a partnership. 

“School districts request these officers and, as part of that agreement, assume responsibility for the associated costs, including salary, benefits and health insurance,” Jenkins wrote. “These are not arbitrary increases; they reflect real, rising costs tied to providing highly trained, fully sworn law enforcement officers, who are supervised by the County Department of Public Safety — not security guards — to protect our children.”

Noble told the school board that Yorktown police cover school vacancies when a Yorktown officer is in training, on vacation, or absent for any other reason

“I never leave you unattended. I’ve never left your side. We fill that with an officer,” he said. “Our children are never alone in those schools.”

In a March 27 email to Yorktown News, Gagliardi said the SRO contract negotiations with both the Yorktown Police and Westchester County Police are ongoing.

“At this time, no final decision has been made,” she said. “We want to reassure our community that the safety and security of our students and staff remains our highest priority, and we are carefully evaluating all options to ensure a solution that is both effective and fiscally responsible.”

Gagliardi said the district values “longstanding partnerships with local law enforcement” and remains “committed to working collaboratively” to come to a resolution.

At the meeting, Noble emphasized the need to keep the SRO program active.

“You won't know what you have, until, God forbid, you lose it," the police chief said. "Allow us to continue to be a non-confrontational resource in the Lakeland Central School District, as we have been for the last 20 years.

“In today's times, well-trained, full-time SROs are vital to the safety and culture of all of our schools. Our children deserve nothing less.”

The Lakeland School Board is expected to finalize its 2026–27 educational plan and will vote whether to adopt the budget during the April 9 Board of Education meeting. The budget will be up for public vote on May 19. For updates on the budget and the future of Lakeland’s SRO program, visit yorktownnews.com.