CLARION, Pa. (EYT) – Clarion County Commissioners and the Clarion-Limestone School District agreed on Tuesday morning to sit down at the table to see if an agreement could be reached that would allow the continuation of a school resource officer.
The position was eliminated by the commissioners at an earlier meeting, and C-L Superintendent Amy Glasl was subsequently told that the probable cost of such a contract would be too high for them to pay.
Glasl said that she, the C-L School Board President David Schirmer, and others want to know if a contract is still possible.
“We would just like to know if there is a possibility of producing a contract for an SRO (School Resource Officer) for this coming school year or if that is totally off the table?” asked Glasl.
Commissioner Chairman Wayne Brosius said, “The decision was, I guess, that the commissioner board was not interested in renewing the contract with the school board.”
Glasl asked what the reasons were for the decision.
“Well, they were not necessarily my reasons,” said Brosius, implying commissioners Ted Tharan and Ed Heasley were opposed. “So, I would defer to somebody else on the board, I guess.”
Glasl provided some background at the Tuesday morning meeting.
“I had sent you a letter in January asking to see if we could talk about it, knowing it was coming up. Because of the virus, we never got to do that. I saw Wayne at the post office, probably a month ago, and he actually said to me we have that contract proposal or we’re having the secretary work it up, and I should be able to get that to you soon. So, I thought that was great.”
She called Brosius before last week’s school board meeting, and he said that it was not prepared.
Glasl continued, “He said it’s not going to be sent out. and I asked why, and he said the amount would be too large. And, I asked him how much, and he said it would be a lot. He said I don’t think you want to know. And, that’s about all our conversation went to, so then I shared that with my board on Wednesday night.”
Glasl said the kids love the program, and it has features that work so well.
“Especially with where we are located and not having our very own police. So, we just were curious — if it’s a money thing, I would definitely like to know what that cost is to see if that’s going to be something we would like to do and spend a little more.”
Tharan said the numbers weren’t there yet and questioned if they could do a contract at the present time.
“We don’t know the numbers. We just settled with the sheriff’s deputies three weeks ago,” said Tharan. ”
We still haven’t got any information back from them. So, how can we come up with a number if we don’t have that information?
‘We can’t give you an exact number yet, adding in all of our costs when you’re starting to look at a full-timer. You have health insurance, vacation, retirement. With all of the benefits, it more than doubles everything because we have to add in all the support staff and everything to it. So, it’s quite a complicated thing.”
Tharan also questioned that if it was offered to C-L, would the county be obligated to offer it to the other six school districts in the county?
“I understand that about offering at all the school districts, but if they’re willing to pay the bill if the numbers come in reasonable or similar to what we were paying, we would like to see those numbers,” said Schirmer.
“If it doesn’t cost the county anything, what’s the difference if the school districts paying the freight? According to talking with Sheriff Munsee, that sometimes if the county is short-staffed, they can use our sheriff’s deputy for county services on our dime. We’re okay with that — if there’s an emergency and they’re short-staffed that day, that’s okay. We’re willing to pay the bill if it’s reasonable.”
The resource officer was full-time, even though some thought it would be part-time. A full-time position carries additional expenses such as health care benefits and support services from the sheriff’s office. The officer was paid $22 per hour, but there were other expenses.
“It’s like anything else,” said Tharan. “Say for example, you go out to the car garage and get your car work done and it’s $85 an hour. Well, that mechanic is not getting $85 an hour. He’s maybe getting $20 and they’ve got to add all these expenses into that.
“It was supposed to be according to contract, a part-timer, but it wasn’t. Well, that’s not our issue. We didn’t assign a full-timer,” continued Tharan. “You know what I mean? We have no control over that other than the idea that we have to pay for it. We don’t have control over who the sheriff sends out. We just have to okay funding.”
After much discussion, both sides decided it wouldn’t hurt anything to talk. First, the commissioners must come up with all of the associated costs for the position, and then the two parties can meet.
Tharan said that C-L will have to ultimately make a decision whether they want to go with the county, or if they want to hire an outside contractor, or even hire their own person.
