Politics & Government

Glastonbury Council Approves Funding for New School Security Guards

The town council approved $128,000 to hire security guards for the town's elementary schools and Gideon Welles School.

 

The Glastonbury Town Council approved funding to hire school security guards for the town’s elementary schools and sixth-grade Gideon Welles School through the end of the school year at their meeting Tuesday.

The council voted 8 to 1 to approve transferring $128,000 from the town surplus to hire guards through the end of the 2012-13 school year. Councilman Thomas P. Gullotta voted against the measure, saying that he couldn’t go along with the concept of replacing school greeters—staff members who currently meet children at the entrances to the school—with security guards.

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“This is completely alien to the way I imagine education,” Gullotta said. “And not the way we ought to be responding.”

The approved funds include $112,000 to hire guards for the town’s elementary schools and Gideon Welles through the remainder of the year, as well as $16,000 to hire a substitute guard to cover for absent security.

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For security reasons, Superintendent Alan B. Bookman has not said whether or not the guards will be armed. The guards will be in place by March.

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