The Gillett School District hopes to have bids by Aug. 13 from local law enforcement agencies interested in providing a school resource officer (SRO) program.
Superintendent Nathan Hanson appeared at the Aug. 1 Gillett City Council meeting to introduce himself and answer questions about the proposed SRO program.
Police Chief Shane Breitenbach said he attended the July 31 meeting of the school board’s ad hoc SRO committee when it approved the wording of the request for proposal form. The school district is asking the Gillett Police Department and Oconto County Sheriff’s Department to submit their proposals by Aug. 13.
“The school will also be putting out a short survey to the community requesting their input on several items,” Breitenbach said.
Alderperson Irene Drake asked Hanson what he plans to do to improve discipline on school buses, but the superintendent said the school resource officer would not be the primary person involved.
“One of the things that we talked about when I met with the principals when I started (July 1), is doing a better job working with students in the school on what our behavior expectations are,” Hanson said. “I think that the way the school year ended, what I observed — us having to have staff on every bus — is just not a common occurrence anywhere else I’ve been.”
Improving the situation will involve working in the classroom and laying out expectations for the rules of behavior in school and on the bus, he said.
“And I think we have to take that with the combination of a little bit of a heavier hand,” Hanson said. “Riding a school bus is not a right, it’s a privilege, and if a student doesn’t behave on a bus, they can be removed from a bus, and the parents would be expected to transport that student.”
The dean of students and the principals would be responsible for dealing with misbehavior on buses, Hanson said.
“The school resource officer wouldn’t be involved in day-to-day discipline,” he said. “One of the things we talked about at length is the SRO would be like any other staff like a teacher, where they in theory could assign a detention or something like that. They’d be involved in building relationships with students and helping to educate students on what good moral behavior is in a school district.”
Breitenbach noted that the school district would not be including an overtime budget into the SRO program, so the city would utilize flexibility in scheduling to make up for that — for example, the officer would start later in the day when he or she is expected to attend a nighttime football game rather than work overtime hours.
“I really see that as a great opportunity for the person to build relationships with kids,” Hanson said. “It would really further the goals of what an SRO would be, right? Building that ability for kids to be able to come to an officer if they have concerns, help to maintain security in the school, just really work with the entire entity.”
The school board needs to be on track to approve adding the position as part of the tax levy that is considered at the school district annual meeting Oct. 17, Hanson said. Approval could come as soon as the board’s regular monthly meeting Sept. 19.
wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com
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