Ten months after the police department suggested adding two more school resource officers to the middle schools in Arlington Heights, members of the Arlington Heights School District 25 Board of Education tabled the discussion on the issue indefinitely – unless new information becomes available.
“I have not seen information that really stresses we would need that kind of expansion,” board Vice President Greg Scapillato said at the Feb. 13 board meeting.
He explained that district staff have supplied a job description, a memo of understanding with the village along with data on school resource officers at surrounding districts.
“There’s a long-term budgetary impact. The village’s financial picture is important here – they’ve had millions in surplus,” he said.
The addition of two full-time school resource officers is projected to cost the school district $222,000 annually, and the village would pay for the officers’ benefits. Many area school districts have similar partnerships, Superintendent Lori Bein said.
The cost of the expanded SRO program has been a major concern for some board members since police Chief Nick Pecora presented the idea to the district last year. Pecora told board members the police department wants to broaden its service in the community, though not because of any safety concerns in the elementary school district.
“Where are we going to find the funding for this?” board Member Rich Olejniczak asked. “If the village believes there’s a need, let the village pay for it.”
Currently, two school resource officers serve the district’s nine schools, Bein said in past meetings, in addition to providing SRO services to 10 other Arlington Heights schools and four other nearby schools. Most of the officers’ time in SD25 is spent at Thomas and South middle schools where a combined total of 1,900 students are enrolled in grades 6 to 8.
In addition to their roles as SROs, Bein said the officers provide student safety lessons, train staff and often participate in district extracurricular activities. The salaries and benefits of the two current SROs in the district are paid by the village of Arlington Heights.
A few parents addressed the board at the Feb. 13 meeting, speaking on both sides of the issue – some stressing school safety and others questioning the need and costs.
“There’s been no increase in safety threats, no increase in discipline problems, that’s not a reason to expand the program,” said resident Mary Kay Baldino. “There’s been no demonstrated metrics on how the expanded program would be measured in exchange for the $222,000 a year we would be spending on it. Nothing would be able to measure a return on investment for the community.”
Brittany Coffin, a parent of two children at Windsor Elementary School and a licensed clinical social worker of 20 years at Edgewood Middle School in Highland Park, said she spoke on behalf of hundreds of District 25 parents who support more SROs in the middle schools.
“Given my personal and professional experience In the aftermath of the Highland Park July 4 parade mass shooting, I request and urge us all to provide our children with every opportunity to feel and be safe,” Coffin said. “On behalf of hundreds of District 25 families … we view the SRO expansion as a necessary step to ensure the continued safety and positivity for all students. Specifically, we would like to highlight the three most important benefits: safety, education and relationships.”
Board member Elizabeth Nierman agreed about the value of those relationships. She said resource officers have a unique opportunity to be mentors to students.
“I don’t want to let this go because we can’t make the numbers exactly how we want to,” she said.
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However, in a straw poll initiated by board President Anisha Jogee, four of the seven board members agreed to table the discussion on the topic indefinitely.
Elizabeth Owens-Schiele is a freelancer.