Alice Pickering
LinwoodArea ReporterLinwood parents plan to ask Linwood Township to fund the position of School Resource Officer (SRO) at the townshipís annual meeting, Tuesday March 9.
A sizable group met Monday evening for purposes of developing a strategy to finance and thus save the position of School Resource Officer that Linwood Elementary shares with Columbus Elementary and three other local elementary schools in Anoka County. It primarily comes down to money.
Parent Alan Hurtley helped organize the meeting. Anoka Sheriff Bruce Andersohn and four deputies attended the meeting along with about 35 parents and staff. State Representative Ray Vandeveer and Township Supervisor Rudi McCurdy also attended. The number of deputies in attendance was a show of support for the program.
The SRO serving schools in Anoka County, among them Columbus Elementary and Linwood Elementary in ISD #831, has been funded by grants since 1999. The grant money to support the position has run out, but parents want to keep a deputy in their schools.
In their comments, Principal Jill Schafer and Counselor Gae Jarvis touched on the wealth an SRO, currently the person of Anoka Deputy Chris Beck, brings to the school community. His presence generates an atmosphere of safety at the school, a positive role model for students who eagerly greet him in the halls, parents say.
He personifies public safety to many of the students; children in crisis know he knows how to help them. Students view the officer as protector and a friend; kids at-risk have an advocate. He is also available to teachers as an educational resource, in terms of their making wise choices.
Having the SRO in the school means a better response time from the county. The squad car parked in front of the school is a deterrent for those who should not be there. A deputy can expedite action in instances of truancy or suspected abuse.
With regard to state mandated emergency and lock-down drills, he or she can be certain these are carried out, and bring a law enforcement viewpoint to emergency planning.
Andersohn provided a printed breakdown of costs to maintain this service for children at Linwood. A school resource officer is a contract with Anoka County. If dedicated to providing service in the schools eight hours daily, five days a week, during the school year the annual cost to fund an SRO is just under $84,200. This includes salary, benefits, vehicle, communications equipment, and administrative support.
To extend this to service year round, staying connected with students during the summer, in safety camps and various other activities, the cost would increase to just under $93,000. Andersohn indicated that Columbus Elementary is leaning positively toward keeping the officer in the schools, so it might be possible to share the cost with them.
An additional concern raised at the meeting, was providing contract police protection for the township. This could be in addition to having an SRO. Parents attending wanted ìaddition toî service.
A separate cost for contract police protection; eight hours of coverage, 365 days a year would cost the township just under $172,000 a year. Contract protection five days a week would cost about $107,000. In either case, the terms would be similar to the terms for the SRO.
Having either of these services, means asking the township officials to include funding for the programs, in the townshipís annual budget. It also means coming up with the money for the program, possibly through a combination of shifting money from other departments or increasing the proposed township levy. Likely adequate funding would be a combination of this.
Most of those attending said they were willing to pay extra for the SRO. One important suggestion was to present specific tax impact on home values to combat wholesale protests against any increase in taxes. The taxes might increase, but the size of the increases on the township portion of property taxes could be specifically identified, and tied to home value.
Those attending the meeting Monday evening were urged to attend the Linwood annual meeting, Tuesday, March 9. Since this is Election Day, the meeting itself will begin at 8:15 pm at the townshipís senior center.
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