We think that its a "good thing" that our police are resident in the schools.
The School Safety Program was a state-funded grant program that placed School Resource Officers (and/or Juvenile Probation Officers (JPOs) in selected schools to contribute to safe school environments that are conducive to teaching and learning. The funds were given to the school districts for this purpose.
State grants dried up in 2008. At that time, the Tucson District One School Resource Officer program was staffed by 23 experienced officers. Tucson District One eliminated the budget for their entire School Resource Officer Program. The City of Tucson did not pick up the cost.
Oro Valley, however, did pick up the cost of the SRO's located at the Oro Valley schools in the Amphitheater ("Amphi") school district.
Today, Oro Valley pays for seven (7) full-time SRO's and one sergeant in charge of the SRO unit.
Did you know that there is no job description specific to the SRO Officer? The Oro Valley Police Department considers the seven SRO officers to be an operational assignment (classification 2760). Did you know that there are no specific skill requirements or training for the classification 2760 as a school resource officer?
Exactly, what do the SRO's do all day? What do they do during summer vacation?
So, to sum it up: The citizens of Oro Valley pay both primary and secondary property taxes and a portion of those taxes is used to support the Amphitheater School District. The Amphitheater School District is responsible for the safety budget of their students. The Town of Oro Valley pays these SRO's. The Amphi School District does not pay for nor reimburse the Town of Oro Valley. The SRO's have no specific job description and there is no public report on what they do.
So we wonder. Shouldn't the Amphi school district pay for the SRO program? Shouldn't this position have a specific job description? Shouldn't SRO's receive specific training?
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3 comments:
The SRO position should definitely have a specific job decription. There should be goals for the SRO program. The officers and program should be evaluated yearly to determine its effectiveness. The principals, teachers and parents should be part of the evaluation team.
Have these officers received any specific training for this postion? If not, this should be done for all future SROs.
Once again this blog is guilty as previously charged. I have stated many times in the past, it posts inaccurate information or half truths. That former has been proven on many occasions. Usually the half truths are printed because if the entire truth were known it wouldn’t fit ‘the LOVE BLOG agenda’. What follows is proof of both. Now I don't really care if YOU don't want the truth, but I do and the citizens deserve it. And that's why I respond to something as blatantly antagonistic as the original post.
The underlying reason for posting the SRO story is simply another in the long noxious series of attacks against the police department. It's so 'Zinkin/Garneresque' that it is laughable. It could have been penned by either of those two but I happen to know that the ‘Moose’ submitted a public information request for an SRO job description. But the LOVE Blog and the ‘Moose’ are nothing more than shills for Garner and Zinkin . I feel comfortable using that terminology since the same language was used by this blog to describe me. It was another case of inaccurate reporting. In this case it is an accurate description of the relationship between the two council members and this publication.
I’ll start with a very simple statement. It is the job of government to provide for public safety. That’s all inclusive. In your home, as you drive, when you attend a public meeting or when you go to school the Town of Oro Valley has a responsibility to protect the public safety of those within its boundaries.
I quote from the post: “The Amphitheater School District is responsible for the safety budget of their students.” I am not going to quibble about the sentence structure but I was not aware that the students had a safety budget. But the intent of the sentence is to state that Amphi is responsible for the public safety of the students. That is simply not accurate. Nor do we pay any taxes that are intended for that purpose. The taxes we pay for the schools covers, in the area of safety, things like food handling, trip hazards, equipment failure, etc. The school district does hire general security personnel but does not have a police force nor do our taxes pay for one. So to answer question one of the post: “Shouldn't the Amphi school district pay for the SRO program?” The answer is NO!!!
The next problem with the original post and again I quote: “Exactly, what do the SRO's do all day?” This implies that the School Resource Officers do little if any work and just sit around the school all day waiting for something to happen. Nothing could be further from the truth and it is insulting the squad.
Next, had the author done their due diligence and interested to writing something of value, they could have placed a call to either the sergeant or lieutenant responsible for the SRO program as I did. Both are happy to answer not only the what do they do question (I already knew the answer to that one), but they would have also advised the inquirer that while there is not a document titled a job description there are printed, clear and comprehensive “job expectations” for the SRO’s. They are a valuable resource to the schools AND they are the first line of defense against many illegal activities that occur on and around schools. Just in case you have forgotten one of our kids overdosed and died on some heroin that was purchased on or close to school property. Through the great work of the SRO’s, the OV police department and other local law enforcement agencies the individual was caught and convicted of not only drug trafficking but 2nd degree murder.
I also find it ironic that two of our local SRO’s were recognized as “SRO of the Year”, by the AZ Association of SRO’s. That’s a great honor for ‘untrained, slackers’ don’t you think?
Next time you want to write something, PLEASE do so with the intent of presenting the complete story. At some point it would be nice to see something positive written about the operation of our community.
To other L.O.V.E. readers, I apologize for this lengthy reply.
OVOT...
Could you, please, clarify some of the points you made in your criticism of this posting?
1. You say the people responsible will tell anyone what the SROs do during the day, and that you already knew the answer. What do they do? Do they teach classes to every classroom? Do they counsel students in need? Do they assist teachers with classroom situations? Do they attend school-day and after school functions?
2. Have these officers received special training for this position? If the officers have received special training prior to becoming an SRO, are they supplied with additional training each year?
3. Are the SROs evaluated each semester or year by principals, parents, teachers, students and the officer in charge of SROs?
I was please to hear two local SROs were recognized as "SRO of the Year" by ASROA. I referred to the ASROA site, you mentioned, and found little information on that site - especially about training, conferences, and awards. Could help me find the specific information? Who were these 2 officers? They should be recognized.
The National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) has an excellent site. It lists an outstanding BASIC SRO 5-day, 40 hour course for certification. Have any OV SROs attended this certification course?
OVOT, I am asking for these clarifications as a caring citizen and a former teacher. My school, in a large district, had 1 DARE officer who taught 12 hours of lessons for every classroom in the school during the year. He met with teachers prior to the lessons to preview each topic and ask for suggestions. He worked individually with the school counselors. He worked individually with some students. He met weekly with the principal. He attended all school activities and functions during day and at night.
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