SHELBY – The city of Shelby unanimously passed a resolution on Monday evening that officially allows for the implementation of a school resource officer in Shelby schools.
The resolution authorizes the city to enter into contracts with Shelby City Schools and Pioneer Career & Technology Center for the employment of school resource officers (SROs). Officer Paul Zehner has been the SRO at Pioneer for the past four years, and Officer Keith Swisher is expected to be the SRO for Shelby.
“We looked at the success that we had with the Pioneer SRO and how well that program worked,” explained Shelby Police Chief Lance Combs.
“Because of that success, and a changing landscape of school violence and school shooters and the ongoing drug problem, we thought it might be mutually beneficial if we entered into a similar situation with Shelby City Schools.”
The agreement with both Pioneer and Shelby Boards of Education are written to be identical, a 75/25 cost split with the city. Each board will pay or reimburse the city of Shelby 75 percent of all expenses, pensions, retirements, insurance or any other cost associated with the SRO as well as 100 percent of training costs associated with the SRO.
If either board fails to pay or reimburse the city of the expected costs, the school resource officer position for that district shall be immediately terminated.
Councilman Garland Gates also pointed out that by entering into a contract with Shelby City Schools, this also enables the return of D.A.R.E. to the school system, a goal of Combs when advocating for a school resource officer this spring.
“This was an action item from our opiate meetings that the public said they wanted,” Combs said on May 1. “We wanted something that was officer-driven that develops those relationships throughout the course.”
At the May 1 meeting, Shelby Council authorized the mayor to apply for the Drug Use and Prevention Awareness Grant from the Ohio Attorney General. The $11,000 grant would reimburse the wages for the officers’ time spent in the classroom teaching the D.A.R.E. program.
Subsequently, local insurance agency Adams, Albert & Curry paid to send Officer Swisher to D.A.R.E. training, and the department secured funding to send Swisher and an additional officer to SRO training. This created a backup SRO, as well as a new SRO position for Shelby City Schools pending board approval.
Combs noted the addition of the an SRO is especially attractive considering the close proximity of the middle school and high school campuses. The SRO has the potential to reach the entire student body of Shelby City Schools if voters choose to pass a levy this fall that would build a new K-8 school building near the high school campus.
Councilman Charlie Roub wondered how a two school resource officers might affect staffing within the Shelby Police Department. The short answer, according to Combs, was that it was going to hurt.
“Until we get the two positions that we currently have open filled, it’s going to hurt us,” Combs said. “We’ve made some minor adjustments in staffing coverage until we fill those positions.”
Council also passed an ordinance by emergency authorizing the Shelby Police Department to hire a full-time officer to replace the school resource officer. This brings authorized police personnel numbers to one chief, three captains, two sergeants, and eleven officers, two of which shall be school resource officers.
“This allows us to backfill the school resource officer position with a full-time position,” Combs explained.
The next step in officially implementing school resource officers at Shelby and Pioneer is approval from their respective Boards of Education. The next Shelby Board of Education meeting is Aug. 28; the next Pioneer Board of Education meeting is Aug. 21.
