School administrators in the Newburgh Enlarged City School District are now at odds over a policy change that would ban level 3 sex offenders from their campuses.

“I don’t want any level 3 sex offender on school property,” said Board of Education President Darren Stridiron.

Stridiron was newly appointed as board president and is behind a new zero-tolerance approach to ban those worst offenders from district schools.

“The current policy allows them to be hired by the school district as an employee, or as a parent or student to be in the building,” said Stridiron.

The district held a board meeting about it last week, but some board members and administrators raised concerns about whether it would violate an offender’s right to vote in a campus building or interfere with a community member attending a graduation - and it was never voted on.

The district issued a statement explaining the pushback saying, “As we make revisions to any district policy, the district must make sure we are in compliance with state and federal laws and are not violating any rights of our community members.’”

Current district policy allows the superintendent and an offender’s parole officer to privately decide to grant special permission for them to be on campus. The district attorney was heard during the board meeting, saying that administrators have the legal right to decide on the district's own policy - to either ban or allow sex offenders under certain circumstances.

“My concern is for the safety of the students and staff, not the lost rights of a sex offender,” said Stridiron.

Current district policy allows the superintendent and an offender’s parole officer to privately decide to grant special permission for them to be on campus. Stridiron says under current policy, board members and the public are not made aware if a level 3 sex offender is given special permission to be on campus and it's not known if any are.

The Newburgh school district says other schools have similar policies allowing special permission for some level 3 sex offenders to be on school grounds.