Tri-City Sun

At the May 22 school board meeting, Pinconning Area Schools superintendent Andy Kowalczyk gave the community an update about options for school resource officers.

The district has been having discussions with the city police department about the SRO recently and decided to research other options for the service within their schools. Kowalczyk reached out to the Bay County Sheriff’s office to see what a partnership with their department would look like. The Pinconning Area school district is looking at potentially changing their SRO program from the city department to Bay County Sheriff’s Office.

"So, I haven't done anything with it yet before I came to you," Kowalczyk told the board. "But I think it may be worth getting a quote to see what we would actually have for all these things for a number of years to work closer with them. I wanted to bring it to you guys first, but it doesn't seem like there's any negatives to asking for a quote."

Kowalczyk said working with the Sheriff’s office would have a lot of benefits. The deputies would be instructors and experts in active-shooter situations, as well as first-aid procedures. Working with them would also solve the problem of jurisdictional lines that they had with city police, as deputies are authorized to go anywhere in the county should a problem arise, and city officers have to wait and get authority outside of city limits. The Sheriff’s office would partner with the district through the entire selection process, through all interviews and decisions. The district can also determine the number of days or hours worked by the SRO in the district, although the Sheriff’s office advised a full-time officer would be best for the district. 

“There is a range of cost per year” Kowalczyk said, “And a piece of that range who you select. If we go through the interview process, and we select a rookie, they’re going to be a lot less expensive than someone with 20 years' experience.” 

The Sheriff’s office would be willing to only have the district pay for the months students are in school, covering the officer’s pay for the times of year when they are on break. ”So, it looks like it could be considerable savings compared to our offer from the city,” he said.

Some board members were hesitant to leave the city, however, feeling that the comradery between sharing a district and taxpayers created a good relationship, not to mention the years that they had spent working together already. The board moved forward with receiving quotes from both departments and comparing them, seeing if the city would be able to match in order to continue their relationship.