Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, Chair of the Springfield School Committee, will attend the School Committee Organizational Meeting scheduled for Thursday, January 2, 2024 at 12:30 p.m. at City Hall in Room 220.
Mayor Sarno will attend this meeting and continue to advocate for the School Committee to vote to affirm the 3-year agreement between the Springfield Public Schools and the Springfield Police Department for access to school security cameras to continue to safely enable collaboration to safeguard and protect students, staff, and families in the case of an emergency or threat. Mayor Sarno, after getting outreach from the community, will also advocate for dedicating the Central High School basketball court after Travis Best – a Central High School, college, and NBA stand-out player who continues to generously give back to our Springfield community through his youth sports foundation initiatives.
All meetings may be viewed live in real-time at:
https://www.youtube.com/@schoolcommitteeSPS/streams
Mayor Sarno states, “All we care about is that our children, our students, families, teachers and staff are safe and sound. The collaboration enabled by this agreement has already prevented tragedy and protected our schools. It is important that we continue to uphold it as we know that it is a life-saving measure that can take minutes off emergency response should any of our schools face a threat or emergency. Knowing what they are responding to and where to go is crucial. Safety of our students, teachers, staff, families and school community is paramount and that includes protecting privacy and safeguarding against surveillance abuse. Police are not and cannot monitor our schools 24/7, or surveil our students and/or staff. Their access to school cameras is permitted only in collaboration/agreement with school department officials in limited emergency situations, and all instances are logged. It is a limited group of SPD staff that have this access during an emergency in order to gather the best information possible and respond appropriately. Superintendent Akers and I will continue to support the safety and security of our schools.”
