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Council approves memorandum with Mentor schools to expand school resource officer program
Summary
The Mentor City Council approved an ordinance authorizing a memorandum of understanding with the Mentor Exempted Village School District to expand placement of school resource officers; the school board will vote on the MOU on July 10 and the city and district aim to phase in officers to cover each school over time.
Mentor City Council approved an ordinance on July 1 authorizing a memorandum of understanding with the Mentor Exempted Village School District to revise and expand the city’s school resource officer (SRO) program.
The agreement, approved as Ordinance No. 25-063, revises an earlier program and would allow Mentor Schools to employ officers with specialized training to work as permanent part-time or full-time SROs in additional school buildings. City Manager Ken Filipiak said the move expands a partnership the city has pursued with the district for more than a decade.
The MOU is intended to phase in officers so that, over time, officers are present daily in each building. Chief Gunsche (the city’s police chief) described the agreement as setting goals, duties and responsibilities for both the city and the district and said it reflects commitments by both parties.
Maggie Cook, president of the Mentor Board of Education, told council she supports the MOU and said Mentor voters and taxpayers want a daily police presence in each building. Cook said the district will consider the ordinance at its July 10 meeting and, if it approves the MOU, the district intends to immediately seek contracts for four officers to begin staffing.
Council members voted to adopt the ordinance at the meeting. The city’s action places the revised SRO MOU before the school board; it does not by itself place officers in schools until the school district takes its formal steps and the city and district execute the operational contracts described in the MOU.
Background and next steps: the ordinance revises the city’s 2003 SRO arrangement that initially placed a full-time officer at the high school. Under the revised MOU the parties plan a multiyear phase-in to expand coverage. The school board’s July 10 agenda will include the city-district MOU, and the city said it will coordinate deployment and training once both sides have signed implementing agreements.
