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Poudre School District approves SRO contracts after presentation on engagement, summonses and restorative referrals
Summary
After a detailed presentation on three decades of school resource officer (SRO) work and district engagement data, the board authorized SRO contracts with local law-enforcement partners and directed staff to finalize agreements. Trustees emphasized prevention, restorative pathways and clearer data collection.
The Poudre School District Board on June 9 approved forming and finalizing school resource officer contracts with Fort Collins Police Services, the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office and the Timnath Police Department after a presentation on SRO duties and outcomes.
Jared Sergeant, the district’s director of Student Safety and Emergency Management, told trustees that the district tracks SRO activity through an engagement metric and reported roughly 1,709 recorded engagements this past year across the three partner agencies. Sergeant said about one-third of SRO contacts were mentoring engagements; juvenile summonses numbered 55 for the year, and roughly 48 percent of those summonses were for what Colorado classifies as victims-rights crimes such as third-degree assault.
Sergeant described the program philosophy as a triad—teacher, mentor/counselor and law enforcement—designed to prioritize prevention and kept students out of the juvenile system when appropriate. He said the district’s SROs have increasingly referred students to restorative programs and community services: conflict-transformation (restorative justice) and the Center for Family Outreach together diverted dozens of students who might otherwise have faced formal charges.
Board members pressed presenters on how disciplinary decisions are separated from law-enforcement action and how restorative and diversion options are chosen. Sergeant and Assistant Superintendent Julie Chaplin said disciplinary recommendations remain the schools’ responsibility, while SROs handle enforcement when the law requires it; Chaplin explained procedures for suspensions and expulsions and described a progressive discipline matrix the district will pilot next year to standardize responses across schools.
Trustees then approved a motion authorizing staff to finalize contracts and expenditures in excess of the board’s $250,000 threshold for those agreements. The motion passed unanimously.
