The Gillett School Board is close to a decision on hiring a school resource officer.
School officials have been talking for several months with city and county law enforcement about the idea of having a police officer whose main job would be to interact with students and school staff on a daily basis. The Gillett City Council also heard a presentation in April.
The cost of the program would be split between the school district and the law enforcement agency. Both the Gillett Police Department and Oconto County Sheriff’s Department have expressed an interest. The sheriff’s office has had a school resource officer at the Suring Area School District since January 2023, while the Oconto Falls Police Department staffs an SRO in that district’s schools.
Gillett School Board member Jamie Heroux told the board June 27 that the ad hoc committee studying the issue worked on a job description at its last meeting in May, based on a reference packet developed by board Vice President Robin Banaszynski.
“We also discussed the possible process of going to bids for an SRO with our local law enforcement, but at the committee level, we decided we wanted to bring that to the full board to get their opinions,” Heroux said.
The board was scheduled to meet in closed session after the June 27 meeting to discuss whether to seek bids from the city and council for the operation of the SRO program, then return to open session to decide the next move.
wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com
