L.P. Quinn Elementary School Principal Elizabeth Littlefield greets, from left, Emma Payment, Duke Kavanagh, Landon Gallagher-Rust, Dalton Russell and Emmit Merrihew on the first day of classes on Thursday in Tupper Lake. (Enterprise photo — Chris Gaige)

TUPPER LAKE — The Tupper Lake Central School District is expected to announce its school safety officer selection Monday evening at its regular school board meeting.

TLCSD Superintendent Jaycee Welsh will make a candidate recommendation to the board then, which will formally vote on accepting it. Welsh said it was an extremely difficult decision for the district, noting that all three candidates presented strong cases for the hiring committee to consider.

The candidates — Mike Godin, Mike Kohan and David “Haji” Maroun — participated in a public forum on Aug. 20 following a first-round set of interviews held by district staff. They answered a set of questions submitted by the public and read by Welsh. To read more about the forum, visit tinyurl.com/yb9en5x6.

After the board formally selects the candidate on Monday, they are expected to begin serving on Tuesday, according to Welsh. The Tupper Lake Police Department will continue to provide security at the two school buildings through the end of next week as the district’s SSO is onboarded and begins their position — as TLPD has done since classes began on Thursday.

The SSO is expected to be hired as a contract employee of the district. Citing an ongoing staffing shortage, TLPD informed the school earlier this year that it did not have the resources to provide one of its sworn officers as a school resource officer — except for filling the gap during the time it takes for the SSO to be selected and onboarded.

The district had previously paid TLPD for the provided school resource officer. When the district was notified that the service could no longer be provided, it began its candidate search and made necessary amendments to school policy.

Since the person who ultimately fills the position will then be a school employee, as opposed to being directly employed by a law enforcement agency, TLCSD had to adopt a use-of-force district policy for the authorized carrying of firearms, specifically for the SSO, something the school board did at its meeting on Aug. 4.

More information on that policy, and other requirements and duties of the SSO, can be found at tinyurl.com/3t857nh8.

Welsh noted in August that the costs are expected to be the same with the district employee as they were when the district was contracting with the TLPD.

A full agenda of the Monday board meeting is available at tinyurl.com/2vujp6mz.