County officials approved an additional appropriation of nearly $100,000 to pay for an additional school resource officer at Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. schools, bringing the district’s total up to six.
Bartholomew County Council members on Monday unanimously approved an appropriation of $99,693.09 to pay for the to-be-hired SRO’s base salary, FICA contribution, health insurance and clothing allowance from June through the end of the year. The base salary for the SRO for the rest of this year is $46,681, according to county officials.
The appropriation was approved by a 7-0 vote.
Bartholomew County Sheriff Chris Lane was joined by Brett Boezeman, BCSC assistant superintendent for finance and operations, in making the request.
BCSC would be reimbursing the appropriation using operating referendum funds, with the exception of the cost of the SRO’s vehicle and training, according to the sheriff.
Boezeman said that request will come before BCSC school board members during their meeting on April 28. He previously told The Republic the requested appropriation put before board trustees would be about $260,000 to pay for four new school security officers, which are new positions, and the new school resource officer for a half-year beginning in August.
The estimated cost for a full-year of the new officer is estimated at $166,000, with a full-year base salary at $72,800, Lane said. Although, that depends on a number of factors including the assigned officer’s years of service.
“That figure’s at the high-end of what that cost would be,” Lane told the council.
Lane also said having the new SRO in place by August “would be a tough hill to climb” and it’s more likely they’ll be “boots on the ground” in January.
“The school corporation had got with me several months ago about wanted to add another school resource officer. Since we only had one it made sense for the sheriff’s office to probably put in that first request for the additional. I explained to them that there is a curve here (in terms of) hiring and training. We have a current hiring process that’s going on right now, so hopefully we can get this position filled as soon as possible.”
“The more security we have in the schools the better, for help on the response time (if tragic incidents) happen. And just building community trust— they interact with kids that are in crisis and struggle from different things, whether it’s at home or mental health issues,” Lane continued.
Where the new SRO will be located is to be determined, BCSC officials said.
There are currently five SROs— four employed by the Columbus Police Department and one by the sheriff’s department. All of them are hired by the two law enforcement agencies and contracted out to BCSC.
On days when BCSC is out of school, Lane said their current assigned SRO is often asked to do specifc work for the sheriff’s department. He said that when BCSC had an e-learning day on April 7, for example, that their current SRO was out on a flood detail.
“From a patrol side, these SROs do us a big favor,” Lane said. “There’s a lot of times they’re able to handle calls at school. They go out to the house and take care of those things, (so) we don’t necessarily have to dispatch a road deputy to have to handle those.”
The four school security officers will be armed and would be stationed at Columbus North and Columbus East entrances with two officers at each. As opposed to the SROs, the school security officers would be BCSC employees.
Those in the new positions, which could very well be retired law enforcement, would be expected to build relationships with students, maintain door security and screen both students and visitors as they come in the buildings throughout the day. They will also respond to life-threatening incidents, such as an active shooter situation, if necessary.
The new positions will also be in line with a proposed policy that school board members will consider during their next meeting, G101 “Armed Security,” which would allow BCSC to hire the school security officers.
