JACKSON – The Board of Education recognized a long-standing school resource officer during their recent meeting.
“The Board of Education wanted to take a moment to recognize a changing of the guard of sorts here in the district,” Board President Michael Walsh said. “After a career in the Jackson Police Department – and 18 years as a School Resource Officer here in our district – we are saying a very warm farewell to School Resource Officer John Pejoski, who is retiring.
“We are pleased to introduce and welcome his replacement – Officer Tom Conti – to our district and we have no doubt he will continue to build relationships in our community. There is no way to quantify the impact he and fellow SRO Colin Menafra have had on our students and in our community,” Walsh added.
The Board President said, “the SRO program is directly responsible for thousands of students and staff being and feeling safer both in school and out. Their work to protect, to educate and to connect with our school community is so appreciated.”
Walsh described the officer saying, “for those of you who may not know, Officer Pejoski – or ‘Pojo’ as he is known – has a tremendous connection with our students and is particularly active and appreciative of the red zone activities at the school, which promote school spirit at sporting events.”
Bus Routes And Tech
In other school news, Superintendent Nicole Pormilli said that the Board was going out to bid for out of school district student transportation routes. “We are on target for our timeline on that.”
Walsh’s report also spoke about new software that the school district has which will allow people, in particular those who send their students out of district to schools that would create new routes.
“The technology will be on the busses which can monitor the kids on and off the busses and monitor the busses better, GPS and all that good stuff. The technology will basically make our routes more efficient and the changes that have been made in transportation there are multiple new bus drivers that have been hired this month which we need which means we can now accommodate (students). We have plenty of busses we just don’t have many drivers so we’re going to start filling those seats,” Walsh said.
