DANVILLE — Danville Chief of Police Monty Vance said he had to reluctantly turn down a grant from the Ohio Criminal Justice Service for a school resource officer.
The grant required a local 25 percent match of about $9,000. Vance said he anticipated the school system would pay for 75 percent of the money needed — because 75 percent of the time the officer would be assigned to the school, September through May — and 25 percent by the police department, because in June, July and August the officer would be patrolling the Danville streets.
“I presented that to the school board,” Vance said, “and they were receptive, but they said they didn’t have the money. So, I had to call my grant person and tell them I couldn’t take the money because I couldn’t come up with the full 25 percent local match. That was sad.”
School resource officers are certified peace officers assigned to a school or district for the purpose of assisting with school security and safety, providing educational opportunities in school, and counseling. Vance said the SRO’s job duties would have included being at the school about 15 minutes before and after school.
“He would have taken care of policing the grounds outside and help with traffic if need be,” Vance said. “During the daytime, he would have been assigned to develop a curriculum that would have enhanced the training of school personnel as far as safety and security, and also to have classes that would help the students learn about various topics such as bullying or anything related to safety.
“He would have developed programs that would have worked with the students from the lower grades right up to the senior grades,” Vance continued. “He would also have been available to work one on one with kids if need be, and meet with the parents. It is just something that would take time to develop.”
Meeting in special session Dec. 8, the school board passed a resolution to approve the presence of a resource officer in the schools, with the stipulation that there would be no cost to the school district.
“A lot of discussion took place at the meeting,” said school superintendent Dan Harper, “both pro and con. Some people thought the presence of a police officer in the school would send the message that [the school system] have bad kids, or that our administrators can’t control the discipline. Those are all misconceptions.
“When you compare the SRO program to the DARE program,” Harper said, “the DARE officer is there to educate students and help prevent drug abuse and those types of things. A resource officer could be used in the same way. People have accepted the fact that a DARE officer is in building, and this would be no different. Really, by putting the resource officer in the building, you’re just adding to the programs you already have there.”
“The SRO would enhance what the DARE officer does and the DARE officer would enhance what the SRO does,” Vance said. “They complement each other. One is not to take the place of the other. Each one would still have his respective duties.
“And they would work together. My plan was for the school resource officer to have worked together with the school administration to become a problem-solver, if anything arose, and to be there to maybe help see things from a law-enforcement perspective that could help to keep the schools as safe as possible.”
Harper said there were community concerns about using the resource officer in the classroom to educate, taking academic time away from the students’ day.
“We do have some time,” he said. “A lot of schools include the SRO in their health classes, and some schools maybe include them in homeroom activities or something. So there are some times in our schedule where kids aren’t in class where we could have worked this in. That’s really not a concern [as far as the school goes].
“It boiled down to creating the perception that we have bad kids, and the cost of the project, as well as the thought that some people in our community don’t feel we should be using school dollars to support their local police department. That’s what it came down to: $7,200. The board discussed what we would be willing to give up in other areas in order to support the resource officer. Would we benefit our staff by taking $7,200 and using it for training or could we improve our buses by spending $7,200 on bus cameras and upgrading our bus equipment to help our drivers? ... When it comes down to looking at being responsible for taxpayers’ money, the board did not feel it could spend taxpayer money on that officer, versus putting the money someplace else.”
Vance said he applied for the grant in June to have the means to provide full-time police coverage for the school system for the safety and welfare of the children. He didn’t hear until the first of December that Danville had been awarded the grant.
“It’s not that we have an unsafe environment,” Vance said. “It’s just that I was trying to be proactive, trying to assure that we maintain and keep our safe [school] environment.
“My point is that we are a part-time police department as far as coverage goes. ... My feeling was, with the grant I could put an officer in the Danville school system, even though I might not have a unit available in town to respond to the school system if they have a problem.”
Vance said he would consider applying for a similar grant next year, if he can get a commitment from the school district or another outside funding source to help pay for the local share.
