Cal board hopes to keep officer at school
CALIFORNIA – The California Area School Board would like to continue its school resource officer (SRO) program in which a California Borough police officer is assigned to work in the schools, but so far, the agreement with the borough has not been renewed. “We do not know yet whether the council is going to continue the program that keeps our children safe, that the school district pays all the expenses for,” said school Director John Bayer at last week’s school board meeting.
School directors Jennifer Griffin and Tom Russell offered support for the program.
“It would be very unfortunate if the council did not continue this program,” Griffin said.
Under past agreements, the school district covered the salary but not the benefits for a police officer from the borough force to be in the schools as a security officer during the school day.
California Mayor Casey Durdines said some council members have expressed the opinion that the agreement should be ended, but no formal action has been taken by council. Durdines, who as mayor is in charge of the police force, said he’d like to see the program continue.
“I feel the school resource officer is of benefit not only to the school, but to the entire community,” Durdines said. “It gives the police department an extra person on duty during the day in the event something happens.”
Durdines said the program gives students an opportunity to have positive interaction with the borough police officers. Durdines said the resource officer in the past has also conducted classes for the students through the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program.
Durdines said that some concerns have been raised about staffing needs in the borough because of officers off on disability at the present time.
“The manpower issue we’re having now is temporary,” Durdines said.
Neither Councilman Gerald “Galvie” Gardner, who heads the public safety committee, nor council President Sheila Chambers returned calls seeking information about the SRO program and concerns about continuing it in the future.