Sunday, October 20, 2024

Oconee County School Board Members Asked To Review Agreements For School Resource Officers In Six Neighboring Counties

***Board Updated On Health And Support Services In Place***

Oconee County Schools administrators have presented the Oconee County School Board with six memorandums governing the relationships between nearby schools systems and police and sheriff’s offices regarding school resource officers (SROs).

School Superintendent Jason Branch told the Board members at their work session earlier this month that he was providing the six documents “for your review” and that the Board should inform him “if there's thoughts or items that you want to share with us” after reviewing them.

The six documents, for Athens-Clarke County, Barrow County, Elbert County, Morgan County, Greene County, and Walton County, have similarities, but also striking differences, among them.

The Clarke County School District has an agreement with the Athens-Clarke County Unified Government through which the unified government provides six officers from the Athens-Clarke County Police Department to the District.

The Walton County School District has an agreement with the City of Monroe for one SRO for the Monroe Area High School, and the Barrow County School System has an agreement with the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office for 12 SROs.

Kevin Yancey, Director of Student Services, told the Board that he was continuing to meet with Oconee County Sheriff James Hale, as directed by the Board, to develop a Memorandum of Understanding between the Sheriff’s Office and Oconee County Schools to place (SROs) in all 12 Oconee County Schools.

The released agenda for the regular meeting of the Board at 6 p.m. on Monday at the Instructional Support Center in Watkinsville does not contain any mention of further updates on the discussion between the county and the school district about SROs.

The agenda for regular meetings does include the usual Public Communication during which citizens from the county are allowed three minutes each to address the Board. Parents have said they want continued updates from the Board as discussion about SROs progresses.

Yancey’s Report

Before turning to an update on the SRO discussions, Yancey, at the Board’s work session on Oct. 7, said he wanted to “review the (existing) emphasis on student wellness offered through the engagement of health and support services.”

Branch 10/7/2024

Yancey said “we have four outstanding groups of support staff at the school and district levels that are pillars in building relationships and providing care for our students and staff.”

At least one guidance counselor is present in all 12 of the district’s schools, a full-time licensed nurse is on each of the 12 campuses, two social workers serve the entire system, and three school psychologists work across the district, Yancey told the Board.

Board Member Tim Burgess thanked Yancey for his “reminder about the school resource support that we already provide. We kind of forget about that sometimes and clearly we've been focused on the SRO piece.”

“To me it sort of speaks to the issue of prevention and maybe trying to get in front of some of these issues before they happen,” he said. “What you kind of clearly reminded us of is there is some investment there and it's a part of the whole conversation and plan to not forget about.”

Update On Discussion

Yancey then turned to the SRO discussion, saying “the district has spent time reviewing memorandum of understandings or agreements from other districts in RESA to gain perspective of what an agreement should entail."

The Northeast Georgia Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA) serves 13 school systems and one regional high school in 10 counties, surrounding and including Oconee County.

Yancey said “we have shared these documents with the Sheriff's Office to review common language and components of understandings and agreements.”

Yancey added that each memorandum reviewed includes sections on purpose, terms of agreement, program, staffing duties and responsibility of program officers, compensation, termination, and assignability.

“In addition to reviewing documents with the Sheriff's Office,” Yancey said, “we have held multiple meetings with Sheriff Hale and his team, and, at the school level, we have spent time with our principles and current SROs to further informally define the roles and responsibilities of an SRO in the school setting.”

Branch told the Board “we encourage you to review those, or continue to review those, and, if there's thoughts--items--that you want to share with us as we continue to work the process, we'll make sure that we work on that as well.”

Board Response

Board Chair Kim Argo asked Yancey for an update on the two school resources officers already installed–one at each of the system’s two high schools–after the tragic mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder on Sept. 4.

Yancey (Back To Camera),
Branch, Argo, Burgess (L-R) 10/7/2024

“It's been a a very fluid transition,” Yancey responded. “Our deputies typically start the mornings at the high schools. They move to our other campuses throughout the day. They're at our high schools during transitions working to build relationships with students and continue to push the positive culture in the buildings.”

Yancey told Board Member Burgess, in response to a question, that the 12 school resource officers planned for the future would be fulltime employees of the Sheriff's office.

“They would be just like any other certified officer of the Sheriff's Office?” Burgess asked. “What we're talking about so far are employees that would be full-time employees of the Sheriff's Office that would be assigned to us for duties and responsibilities that are being debated and discussed as SROs in our school system for about half the year?”

“The other half of the year then they would be employees of the Sheriff's Office and would do whatever duties the Sheriff's Office decides he needs those officers to be engaged in?” Burgess asked.

Yancey agreed.

“OK,” Burgess said, “So we're talking about officers who are basically 50 percent assigned to responsibilities in our school system and 50 percent assigned to responsibilities for the entire county and the sheriff's office in total.”

While the Sheriff is elected, the budget for the Sheriff’s Office is part of the budget for the county and distinct from the budget for Oconee County Schools

“In your review of the MRUs that have been out there so far,” Burgess asked, “is that kind of a standard model with responsibilities and cost sharing and everything? Is it kind of a shared responsibility between the school system and the Sheriff's Office?”

Yancey said it was.

Six Memorandums

The memorandum between the Clarke County School District and the unified government of Athens-Clarke County, dated June 13, 2024, stipulates that the government will assign six “veteran police officers” from the Athens-Clarke County Policy Department at two high schools and four middle schools.

Police services in Athens-Clarke County are provided by the Police Department, not the Sheriff’s Office. The Clarke County School District will provide for “all expenses” of the assigned officers during the 179-day school year, with the amount not to exceed $350,000, according to the agreement.

Screen Shot Map Of Northeast Georgia RESA

The memorandum between the Barrow County School System and the Barrow County Board of Commissioners, dated March 15, 2017, provides for 12 SROs, with the school system paying half of the costs except when school is not in session, when the county will pay all of the costs.

The contract provided to the Board for the Walton County School District, dated July 25, 2024, is between the District and the City of Monroe and covers one city police officer for the Monroe Area High School, with the School District compensating the Police Department $66,897 annually.

The agreement for Morgan County is between the Board of Education and the Sheriff’s Office and provides for four school resource officers, one each for the high school, the middle school, the elementary school, and the primary school. The undated document does not specify any costs to the School District.

The Agreement provided to the Board for Greene County is between the Greene County School District and the City of Greensboro.

The document provides for one SRO at Greene County High School, one at Anita White Carson Middle School, one at the Green County Primary School in Union Point, and one as supervisor. The School District agreed to pay $366,200 for the 2024-2025 school year.

The Elbert County agreement, effective in 2020 for the 2021--2022 school year, is between the Elbert County School District and the Elbert County Board of Commissioners.

The Elbert County Sheriff agreed to provide one SRO each at the county high school, middle school, elementary school, primary school, and learning center, with the School District paying $50,000 per SRO.

In all cases, the school resource officer remains an employee of the police department or Sheriff’s Office.

School Choice

Yancey, as part of his Student Services Report, said applications for school choice will be available on Nov. 22.

Yancey said that there is sufficient capacity throughout the system and that “this year all 12 schools are available for public school choice.”

Parents now will have to select an elementary school and then a middle school and high school at the same time, he said.

In the past, parents selected three times: at the time of entry to the elementary school, at entry to middle school, and entry to high school.

Parents provide their own transportation if they participate in school choice rather than have their children attend the school in their own district.

Video

I attended the Oct. 7 meeting of the Board of Education and recorded a video of the session.

The still images above are from that video.

The video below, on the Oconee County Schools YouTube channel, has better audio.

The meeting begins at 4:02 in the video.

Yancey begins his report at 14:56 in the video.

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