City council to vote on school resource officer position for Petoskey schools
PETOSKEY — After years without a school resource officer working in the Public Schools of Petoskey, the district has a chance of hiring one after the Dec. 5 city council meeting.
The district approved a plan at the Nov. 17 school board meeting that would allow for the hiring of an SRO. The officer would be appointed from the Petoskey Department of Public Safety.
Superintendent Jeff Leslie said the approval was exciting because the district hasn’t had an SRO for many years.
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“I've had school resource officers in the school districts that I've been at before coming to Petoskey, and I know how valuable they are to the school, so I'm just excited that we're able to get that implemented here,” Leslie said.
The district is applying for a grant through the Michigan State Police that will hopefully cover a majority of the approved salary. Leslie said he thinks the district is a good candidate for the grant because it targets schools that haven’t had SROs for a period of time. As approved now, the district would be responsible for $70,000 of the total costs for bringing the person on.
The police department’s Ben Carlson would be the person serving in the role if the item passes. He currently works as a school liaison officer.
Carlson said the difference between the two jobs is mostly about scheduling, and that his role in the school wouldn’t necessarily be much different.
He said being an SRO means he wouldn’t have to patrol at all during the school year and would exclusively be working in the school during the months school is in session. During summer, he would be expected to work the road and patrol for the police department.
He anticipates that if this is approved, a majority of his time would be spent with high school and middle schoolers, though he would be available to go to elementary schools as well. He said this is just because problems pertaining to law enforcement may arise with older kids more.
According to the job description posted on the Nov. 17 school board agenda, the SRO is responsible for providing law enforcement services around the schools, have positive relationships with students, assist school officials in fulfilling school board goals and more.
In his role as SRO, Carlson will also be responsible for being familiar with agencies and resources to offer assistance to students and their families as well as being a consistently visible and positive role model in the buildings.
Leslie said he feels Carlson's personality makes him a good fit as the SRO.
Leslie said he wants an SRO that, “Just has a good rapport with students, being visible, being approachable. That’s what made for a successful school resource officer in the places I’ve been in the past.”
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The funding for the role is not coming from the state grant opportunities, though Petoskey is utilizing those monies as well.
Using state funding, the district is having safety analysis reports for all of the district’s buildings. The group doing the analysis, Navigate360, will be back in early December with a 360-degree camera to take photos of every room and provide recommendations for what the district should do going forward.
The Petoskey City Council is expected to meet next at 7 p.m. on Dec. 5 in the city council chambers.
— Contact education reporter Karly Graham at kgraham@petoskeynews.com or on Twitter at @KarlyGrahamJRN.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: City council to vote on school resource officer position for Petoskey schools
