South Fayette’s Sgro named president of PA School Resource Officer group

Jeff Sgro looks forward to coming to work every morning. And most days, he arrives early.
As the School Resource Officer for the South Fayette School District’s four schools, Sgro’s day is never the same. He can find himself walking the hallways of the elementary or high school. Or, he may be talking to a middle school class about the constitution or cyber safety.
“My job is really three parts,” said Sgro, a sergeant with the South Fayette Township police force. “Law enforcement, educator and informal communicator.”
“I probably spend most of my time at the high school,” he added.
Sgro, 46, who has been a South Fayette police officer for 18 years and the district SRO since 2014 – when the position was created – is going to be doing a lot more communicating in the not-so-distant future. Last month, he was named president of the Pennsylvania School Resource Officer group, a three-year-old organization of SROs across the Commonwealth.
“It’s still in its infancy,” said Sgro of the state group, which has 137 members so far. He will remain president of PSRO until 2017.
And with school shootings such as Columbine and Sandy Hook, and most recently in South Carolina, on the minds of parents across the country, Sgro said SROs are vital and needed in public schools. More importantly, communities and SROs need to work together to ensure public schools are safe, he said.
“Having a state organization gives us a voice in the legislature,” said Sgro, who grew up in the township and graduated from South Fayette Township High School.
While the state SRO group is still in its beginning stages, Sgro is hopeful of catching Pennsylvania up with its more established counterparts across the country through both growing the organization and exchanging ideas and knowledge and working closer with the National Association of School Resource Officers, the national organization, which is based in Florida.
Most SROs, like Sgro, are employed by the local police. Their responsibilities are the same as an officer on the regular police force. They have the ability to make arrests and help out where needed. They also have the additional responsibility of serving as a mentor to students, a role Sgro is serious about and relishes. “I really do come to work with a smile on my face,” he said. And it is his interaction with the students that puts it there.
“But, I have to keep four calendars,” he laughed.
Before becoming South Fayette’s SRO, Sgro said he was and still is involved in the activities of his two sons, Matthew, who is in sixth grade and Nathan, a fifth-grader. He said working in the school, which both of his sons attend, is an added bonus.
“Sometimes I get to sit down with them and have a bite,” he said.
Recently, Sgro said, he worked with elementary students on a mock crime scene and a missing faculty member. He helped the students with fingerprinting, handwriting and footprint analysis.
He has also worked with ninth-graders, who will soon be driving, on issues such as driver safety, texting and drinking. Plus, Sgro is active in Project Pride, which is a program for elementary students that talks about the dangers of alcohol and drugs, and SADD, Students Against Destructive Decisions.
“We want to make a difference in their lives,” Sgro explained. “And I get to see a lot of that difference here at the school.”
During the summer months when school is not in session, Sgro goes back to regular duty and goes on patrol.
“The job has its moments, but the good outweighs the bad,” he said.
Sgro said his wife, Kristi, loves the fact he works at the school and has close interactions with the students.
“She probably loves it just as much as I do,” he said.
In his spare time, Sgro can be found at his son’s sporting events.
“I’m just your typical Dad running the kids around,” he said. “I really do have the best of both worlds.”