Status Of Hilliard School Resource Officers Unknown

HILLIARD, Ohio—School resource officers at a local district are in jeopardy as negotiations on a new two-year contract appear to be stalled—over money.

The City of Hilliard approached Hilliard City Schools in 1999 to place school resource officers in the district’s two high schools.

During the first three years of the program, the city and school district split the cost.

But since the district’s costs have skyrocketed and with a third high school set to open this school year, the City of Hilliard wants more.

The new contract would place one Hilliard Police officer at each of the district’s high schools—Hilliard Davidson, Hilliard Darby and Hilliard Bradley. But the city wants the struggling school district to foot 75 percent of officers’ costs.

A July 2 memo from Hilliard Police Chief Rodney Garnett to the district superintended states that money pays for the officers’ wages, time off and service credit, pension contributions, health insurance and workers compensation—along with other costs like uniforms, training and equipment.

The cost to the school district would be more than $283,000 for the school year and more than $292,000 for the 2010-2011 school year.

The district paid only $138,000 for two officers in the 2008-2009 school year.

Superintendent Dale McVey then sent a memo to Hilliard Mayor Don Schonhardt on July 10, stating, “These are very difficult times … The district would ask you to reconsider both the length and financial structure of the agreement to reflect a length of three years … and 50 percent of the costs.“

Schonhardt responded on July 20, stating, “If the amount we have we have presented for three SROs is not acceptable, then in light of the fact that Bradley High School is not going to have full complement of students its first year, we would consider splitting the time of two SROs at two-thirds the proposed amount.“

If no contract can be reached and the SRO program is eliminated, the police department said it will still provide enough of a presence to keep students safe.

The City of Dublin splits the cost of the SROs with Dublin City Schools.

The City of Westerville also splits the costs based on a school year calendar of 178 days.

Grove City does not charge South-Western City Schools for its SROs.

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