School pledges 75% of costs as city, school discuss full-time SRO

Members of the public-safety committee discussed a proposed school resource officer (SRO) arrangement with the local school district and asked staff to draft a contract and return with numbers and a recommendation.

The committee heard that the school district has proposed to fund roughly 75% of the city’s calculated costs for an SRO — including salary, training, equipment, insurance and retirement — and that the city would pick up the remaining 25%. The district also indicated it may seek a ballot measure in the spring to adjust the use of an existing 1% tax to support school priorities; regardless, the district told staff it would commit to covering 75% of this SRO arrangement even if the ballot measure outcome varies.

Committee members discussed operational details: the proposed arrangement would likely place the officer at school for the majority of school days (about 175 days per school year) and assign roughly one-quarter of the officer’s time to regular city police duties. Staff said they would seek to fill the position from in-house full-time officers before recruiting outside candidates and recommended a three-year contract to ensure continuity and to avoid one-year nonrenewals that would leave the city with staffing gaps.

No formal motion or vote to adopt the SRO agreement was made; committee members asked staff to draft contract language, obtain more precise cost figures and bring a final proposal back to committee and council for approval.

Why it matters: an SRO changes the city’s public-safety staffing model and has budgetary implications; the school’s financial commitment reduces the city’s share but does not eliminate ongoing costs, oversight responsibilities or the need to specify duties and reporting relationships in a contract.

Next steps: staff will prepare a draft contract and cost breakdown and return to the committee and the full council for final approval.