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Board praises SRO relationship building after first year; district reports fewer disorderly conduct tickets
Summary
Verona officials and police presented a first‑year review of the school resource officer (SRO) program, emphasizing relationship‑building, emergency preparedness and reduced higher‑level disciplinary incidents. The administration reported 414 documented interactions and a two‑thirds drop in disorderly conduct tickets compared with the prior year.
Verona Area School District administrators and Verona Police Department officials reviewed the first year of the district’s reinstated school resource officer program, emphasizing outreach, relationship building and a mostly non‑punitive approach.
Officer Brad Stole, the district’s SRO, told the board he prioritized visibility and student engagement across grade levels. "I gave out over 2,000 stickers this year," he said, describing classroom and lunchroom visits and traffic speed checks at school drop‑off that resulted in parent notifications rather than immediate punitive consequences.
Chief David Dresser of the Verona Police Department described the community response as largely positive and said the department supports the SRO assignment. Administration presented data the board requested: 414 documented SRO interactions this school year; 273 calls were not related to truancy and 141 were truancy‑related. Of those interactions, 63 rose to a level where enforcement could take place and 22 resulted in citations; the administration also said disorderly conduct tickets tied to school incidents dropped from 14 the prior year to five this year.
Administrators and officers described the SRO’s role as relationship‑focused rather than primarily enforcement. Board members and administrators emphasized that the SRO participates in tabletop emergency exercises, monthly coordination meetings with first responders, and ongoing work to balance safety and students’ sense of welcome in school.
"This was proactive work — he could have been a ticket‑writing machine, but he elected more often to let the school handle issues and focus on relationships," an administrator said.
The presentation included examples of the SRO’s activities (speed checks with follow‑up calls to families, elementary visits and stickers to recognize positive behavior), descriptions of tabletops and emergency drills (including drone footage used to evaluate evacuation staging) and plans to continue collecting data on interactions and outcomes.
Next steps: administration recommended continuing the monthly coordination with first responders, regular review of documented interactions and public posting of the SRO newsletter that is embedded in board documents.
