By MATT LINDSEY

Although Potsdam and Canton schools have included funding for a police presence in their districts, nearby Norwood-Norfolk Central and Parishville-Hopkinton Central have not.

Schools around the nation, including those in St. Lawrence County, have been faced with the idea of hiring an in-school officer in response to several school shootings.

“We did have [a school resource officer] in the past, but that was long before I was here,” according to Jamie Cruikshank, NNCS superintendent.

The Norfolk Police Department have a presence at the school almost every day for a period of time, Cruikshank said.

“We have not talked, as a whole Board, about SRO's, yet,” he said. “The discussions have been more concentrated within my office as information gathering. If I take anything to the board then I want to know the facts beforehand.”

NNCS holds active shooter drills every year or so, mostly as tabletop exercises, Cruikshank explained.

The students are not present when an actual active shooter drill is commenced.

“Since we're a one-building school, this type of drill would be very disturbing for our youngest children,” he added. “We are in the initial conversations of developing a region-wide plan with law enforcement.”

At this point, Parishville-Hopkinton Central School is not looking into hiring a police officer, said Rebekah Grim, spokesperson for BOCES.

The district did have an in-school cop when there was specific state funding allocated for the program, but when that funding expired, so did the position.

There are conversations happening on the state level about once again providing funding for the in-school law enforcement program, but the district has no plans to include this in the 2018-19 school budget.