MONROE — School District Administrator Rick Waski noted that “times have changed” during the board of education meeting Monday, before advocating for a student resource officer to be a permanent presence in district buildings.
“If you would have asked me 10 years ago if we would have needed a student resource officer at the high school, I would have told you we didn’t,” Waski said. “…In fact, we even had discussion when I was principal about whether we needed to go that route at that time, and we didn’t. We didn’t feel we needed to.”
He noted that safety needs and the role of an SRO have evolved over time, leading to the conclusion that one may be useful for the district. He said he and City Administrator Phil Rath held talks over six months before proposing the use of an SRO employed by the city.
Waski has worked in districts with such officers in the past he said, adding the Monroe school district has gone without an SRO longer than regional districts of comparable size, like Evansville or Jefferson. While the district has had a good relationship with the police department, he said, an officer in the building at all times could lead to a better one.
Monroe Police Chief Fred Kelley echoed the sentiment.
“I see it as a positive thing,” Kelley said, adding he agreed with Waski that a decade ago things were different and the department currently has a good relationship with the school. He noted that patrols of the district currently take place multiple times a week.
However, the planners of the proposed agreement, from Waski to Kelley to Rath, shared an understanding that an SRO would not be a force field in the event of a violent act on the school. If anything, the officer would serve as a conduit for prevention through early response to reported behavior.
“You hear ‘school resource officer’ and probably immediately you’re thinking Parkland or incidents similar to that,” Rath said. “While there is a place for that, those incidents happen very infrequently and one person is not going to stop those kinds of things from happening outright. They may be able to assist in preventing those types of things by building those relationships with students and staff on a daily basis.”
He added that the use of an SRO would also help avoid the disruption of learning through swift intervention.
The SRO would work in coordination with district administration and act as a liaison between the two. The officer will be assigned to the district throughout the school year, but return to work for the department as a police officer in the months when school is not in session, Kelley said.
A preliminary draft of an agreement based on similar documents used by other districts describes training for an SRO which is conducted through the police department. If the district were to prefer specific trainings for the officer, it could agree on the plan with the department and would be responsible for the cost. The school district would pay 60 percent of the full-time wages and benefits for the officer.
Funding the position would not be from the same source as paying for operational costs, like teacher salaries, which are paid through Fund 10. The cost of an SRO salary would come from Fund 80, which is used for the expense of community resources, like costs associated with the Monroe Public Library.
Kelley said the main priority is not so much hammering out the details of the shared costs between the city and the district to employ an officer to serve at the school, but in finding the right fit for the position.
“We can always use an opportunity to form relationships with younger age kids,” Kelley said. “I can see officers in classes, not necessarily to be the instructor, but to talk to kids about being good citizens, and talk about Constitutional rights and how do those really work in practical application. Things that, you know, more of an exposure to that tends to be in a bad situation; this will be more of a neutral situation.”
Monroe High School Principal Chris Medenwaldt noted he has been a part of a district with a resource officer, echoing that the right person can encourage positive relationships between young people and the police. Rather than knowing young adults because they were given tickets the previous weekend, an officer will know the faces of students because they may have approached them with a concern, heard an officer give a presentation or simply greet them daily at the school.
Time is limited in securing an officer for the upcoming school year. After discussion over whether the district has outlined goals for the use of an SRO, Waski said the questions can be addressed, but in order to ensure the officer could begin, the board would need to vote in favor on March 11. It would also require approval by the Monroe Common Council.
Rath said council members will discuss the idea once the board of education has voted to move forward. However, he noted, the council could reject the proposal and end any efforts to install an SRO at the high school.