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Monona Grove superintendent, school resource officer update council on SRO program and safety staffing
Summary
School and police leaders described the district’s SRO program, relationship with Cottage Grove Police, new safety coordinator hire and outreach activities; officer reported hundreds of student contacts last year with many initiated by students.
Superintendent Dr. Tanya Frederick and Officer Luke Wentz of the Monona Police Department updated the Monona City Council on Oct. 20 about the Monona Grove School District’s school resource officer (SRO) program and district safety work.
Dr. Frederick said the partnership with the Monona and Cottage Grove police departments “continues to be a partnership that’s pretty robust,” calling the SRO presence “a great mechanism for us to have prevention and also real time problem solving.” She said the arrangement builds relationships with students and families and supports training and coordinated responses across buildings.
Officer Luke Wentz described programs and activities intended to build rapport with students. He said he handled 308 “official student contacts” in the last year and that about 40% of those contacts were initiated by students. He described informal efforts such as “Where’s Lunch” events, club advising (fishing club, ski and snowboard club), lunch visits, recess participation and state-event send-offs for athletes. Wentz said he uses plain clothes and community presence to make officers more approachable and that he conducts active-threat, stop-the-bleed and other emergency-response training for schools and community groups.
Wentz said the district added a full-time safety and security director this year, Rachel Martin, who is a district employee collaborating with both police departments. He and the superintendent said that officer Zenas ("Officer Z") Lee from the Cottage Grove Police Department is the other SRO and that he has quickly increased student-initiated contacts (261 official contacts last year, about 40.5% initiated by students) while advising student clubs and offering training.
District and police officials described ongoing priorities: improving communication among stakeholders (city staff, school board, parents), coordinating on student device monitoring, conducting mock-crash events before prom, adding stop-the-bleed training in secondary health classes and continuing to evaluate emergency-response and reunification protocols. Wentz noted involvement with the Dane County School Safety Consortium and with a statewide SRO conference steering committee.
The council and staff asked clarifying questions about Rachel Martin’s role; Dr. Frederick confirmed Martin is an employee of the school district serving as the district’s safety and security director.
