Uintah County, School District approve long-term school resource officer agreement

Uintah County commissioners unanimously approved an interlocal cooperation agreement with the school district to fund school resource officers, Sheriff Steve Labrum said the agreement is effectively retroactive to July 1, 2024.

The agreement sets compensation at $103,000 per full-time school resource officer and a proportional amount for part-time officers, Labrum told the commission. He said the contract contains out clauses but is expected to remain in place because “state statute is we gotta have somebody in the schools all the time.”

The sheriff said the county’s SRO program is among the highest-funded in the state and that collaboration between the sheriff’s office and school district has kept the county “ahead of the game” on school safety. Superintendent participation and the sheriff’s office’s role on statewide safety committees were mentioned as part of that work.

Commissioner John Larson made the motion to approve the interlocal agreement as presented by Sheriff Labrum, and the commission voted to approve it unanimously.

The agreement requires multiple signatures from county and district officials, including the superintendent, the district business administrator and legal counsel, Labrum said. Commissioners asked whether the contract included an escalation clause for increases; Labrum said terms are renegotiable.

The commission did not discuss specific budget offsets or additional program staff tied to the agreement during the public meeting.

Looking ahead, Labrum said that if the county begins receiving more medically-challenged state prisoners, it may need to hire additional medical staff for the jail, a separate matter discussed later in the meeting.