Richard Moody is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media Columbia County may assign full-time school resource officers to the New Lebanon, Chatham and Germantown school districts for the current school year. A request from Sheriff David Bartlett to place deputies in each of the districts full time was approved June 20, by the county Board of Supervisors Public Safety Committee. Each of the districts will pay $40,000 a year to transition the part-time resource officers to full time; each full-time officer would cost the county up to $48,000 per year. “When I became sheriff four years ago none of the districts had school resource officers,” Bartlett said. “The governor had pulled state troopers from schools earlier. So I offered all the districts the chance to have resource officers.” Bartlett said the deputies "are more than officers at the schools." Once they are assigned, they become familiar with the staff and students, alike. "They become part of the district," he said. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.