Flandreau Public Schools are one step closer to having a full-time school resource officer after the school board approved to fund the position at 75 percent at their September 11 meeting.
The city and school first started talking about hiring an SRO at the August 7 city council meeting, following the distribution of a survey through Dakota Education Consulting.
Superintendent Rick Weber said based on the responses received from the public, teachers and students, an SRO came up as something people would like to see the school have.
Because this officer would be hired by the city but work solely for the school during the school year, a new full-time officer will have to be hired for the police department to remain at six full-time officers.
The proposed SRO would work full-time for the school during the day as well as for some school events.
He or she would be housed in the school with the school as the top priority, not to say if an emergency came up the officer couldn’t leave if needed.
With this officer, the school plans to bring back D.A.R.E. and any other programs, as well as have he or she assist in the enforcement of the dress code and cell phone policies, among others.
Initially, both entities had spoke of splitting the position 50/50, or roughly $25,000 each, which the school board approved in August.
At the beginning of this month, the city council discussed the position again at their September 5 meeting, after Weber and City Administrator Don Whitman spoke more about the funding of the school resource officer.
Whitman said Weber indicated the school board was rethinking the dollar amount they could potentially contribute and that they might be willing to fund the entire position 100 percent.
“I said if you fund the entire position, it frees up that amount of money and we’d certainly have enough to hire somebody to replace [an officer] on the road,” Whitman said. “The school wouldn’t have a use for an SRO during the summer, so it’s not realistic that they should pay 100 percent of the position.”
Weber suggested the school pay 75 percent and the city pay 25 percent, which would be the summertime share. The position with benefits will be a $60,000 position, so the school would fund around $45,000.
This offer eased the concerns of some council members from a budgetary standpoint of where their portion of the funds will come from.
At the September 11 school board meeting, board members voted to approve funding the SRO position at 75 percent and discussed their monetary commitment for the future as well.
“I feel strongly that we’re going to see the benefit of an SRO, and I would like to try to secure funding for that going forward,” board president Darren Hamilton said. “Funding on our side is going to come from Capital Outlay expenses.”
He said what he’s looking for is a commitment that takes the school board down the road three or four years, not knowing exactly where that money is coming from each year, but seeing the benefit of the SRO and finding a way to make it work.
While in the past when an SRO was assigned to the school, the officer still worked with the police department during the school year and would have to cover shifts when other officers were gone.
The new SRO, who would likely start in January of 2018, would be assigned solely to the school from August to May and continue working with the city during the summer months.
Though the application season for 2017 has ended, in the years moving forward, the city and school will look into options for grant money to contribute to funding this position.
