Tecumseh school board OK's new school resource officer agreement

TECUMSEH — After negotiations with the city as well as much discussion, the Tecumseh Public Schools board approved the school resource officer agreement with the city Monday.

The vote was 5-1 with board member Greg Lewis voting “no.” School board President Tony Rebotarro was absent.

Superintendent Rick Hilderley negotiated the terms of ending the agreement down from six months’ notice for either party as well as the start date of the program.

“We negotiated the 180-day out clause down to a 90-day agreement and adjusted the start date, which said Jan. 3, but now it says no later than April 1,” Hilderley said.

The SRO agreement would most likely be funded through federal pandemic relief funds, according to Hilderley. It would still be a part of the budget revisions, which the board will discuss and vote on at its next meeting.

“The activities of an SRO would fit within the relief money but would be part of the budget revision,” Hilderley said. “So this may not even be a general fund question for at least another two years. The board can decide to move forward with the SRO agreement understanding that it will be tied to federal relief grant money or because we are putting off the budget revision meeting until Dec. 13 the board could also table the SRO agreement.”

Lewis wanted to know where the money would be coming from ahead of time.

“I know there’s three people on the board who are part of the recall movement and one of the things you want to do is bring up teacher pay, administrative pay,” Lewis said. “We have one pie. We seem to keep cutting it up into little pieces and it could be federal money; it could be grant money. … If we put this into the 2023 budget, then we can plan for it. I don’t understand why that has to be done right now, this year.”

After the board met in closed session a couple of weeks ago to expel a student, the SRO agreement could not have come at a better time, board member Becky Brooks said.

“We have brought up administrative pay. But this is something that those administrators have asked for. This is something they’ve said would be helpful to them,” Brooks said. “I just think we’re fooling ourselves if we don’t add this into our district. There are things out there that we didn’t have to deal with before.”

With the board voting four weeks ahead of schedule, Sgt. Chad Rodgers should be able to start Jan. 3, meaning the school district will pay the full amount in year one of the five-year contract.

The district’s rate would start out at $87,900 in 2022 and then top out at $95,146 in 2026. The city’s portion would begin at $29,300 in 2022 and top out at $31,716 in 2026. The total five-year cost would be $609,915. This would cover Rodgers’ salary and benefits over the five-year period.

Hilderley said in an interview that he advised the board to assume the SRO position would be funded through the general fund.

“We’re confident that we’re going to be able to use at least some of our grant funding; the relief money,” Hilderley said. “But as I said at the meeting, it’s not a guarantee. So my advice to the board was to assume that we’re going to pay for this from general funds but we’re going to work to make sure that we can grant fund as much as we can.”

Hilderley praised the board for being able to come together to reach a consensus on this issue as well as other issues that have come before it.

“The thing that I really appreciate about this board — and this board has come a long way in the last year — is just being able to have thoughtful conversations to make sure that they uncover as many details as they can up front. And it’s never done in a contentious way. People are able to speak their mind and ask questions to get to the best answer for our families. And I think last night was a good example of that,” Hilderley said. “He (Lewis) still has some concerns about the funding. I don’t think that a 'no' vote is against the idea of an SRO. I think that more for him it was ‘let’s make sure that we can pay for this.’”

The Tecumseh City Council will most likely put the issue to a vote at its next meeting. The council has strongly favored the agreement, and many council members expressed their displeasure with the district’s ending the agreement earlier this year.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Tecumseh school board OK's new school resource officer agreement