HAYESVILLE – Ashland County Sheriff’s deputy Brian Martin considers his new role as school resource officer at Hillsdale to be a dream job.
“I’m just so excited I can hardly talk,” he said while addressing the school board and community members at a meeting at Hillsdale Elementary School Tuesday.
Martin, who has worked for the sheriff’s office 18 years, said he loves the Hillsdale district.
“We are like a tight-knit community here,” he said. “It takes a village to raise children, and that’s the way I look at Hillsdale.”
Martin said his role as a resource officer is not only to provide a law enforcement presence in the district’s buildings for security but also to help meet the needs of students and staff in the district.
“If I have to wash tables in the lunchroom, I’m okay with that… I’m a team player,” he said.
Superintendent Steve Dickerson said part of the job of the resource officer is build relationships with, and gain the respect of, students.
“Sometimes people have a false sense of people in uniform… For them to see a different perspective, that people in uniform aren’t these people you see on the news, that they’re actually community people that are here for or our health and wellbeing,” Dickerson said.
Martin also teaches the D.A.R.E. program in the schools and can help serve as a drug prevention officer, Dickerson said.
And hopefully, Dickerson said, the knowledge that there is a school resource officer in the district will be a deterrent to anyone who may seek to harm students or staff.
The cost of having a deputy stationed full-time in the school district is paid through a combination of school district dollars and state grant funds.
District leaders also took time Tuesday to recognize Doug Shenburger, a district volunteer who has served the schools for 25 years. Shenburger works with students daily in the classroom, in the lunchroom and at recess.
Shenburger was awarded a Volunteer of the Year Award from Ohio School Boards Association’s Northeast Region and was one of four volunteers in the region to receive the honor. OSBA regional manager Reno Contipelli presented the award, which Shenburger received after being nominated by Hillsdale Elementary Principal Tom Williams.
“Without volunteers, our schools would not run,” Contipelli said. “For you to be that dedicated and come here every day, I know the people of Hillsdale think the world of you.”
Shenburger will be recognized once again at the OSBA fall onference in Columbus.
Dickerson called Shenburger a great addition to the district, and board member Nicholas Atterholt commended Shenburger, saying he recalls Shenburger helping in the district throughout Atterholt’s own tenure as a student.
