Kaneland school board OKs school resource officer, traffic control at Harter Middle School
Just as children return to Harter Middle School this week, the Kaneland Unit District 302 school board has approved two measures with the village of Sugar Grove to make students safer.
During a Monday meeting, the board unanimously approved the agreement for a school resource officer and an arrangement for traffic control at the middle school.
Similar to the traffic control utilized at Kaneland High School, the new traffic control at Harter will occur before and after school at the intersection of Harter Road and Esker Drive in Sugar Grove.
According to Julie-Ann Fuchs, associate superintendent for the district, a police officer will direct bus drivers and parents who are dropping off and picking up their children in the morning and afternoon so they can depart safely onto Harter Road.
The school has roughly 1,000 students.
"The school buses need to turn left onto Harter Road as a part of their bus route," Fuchs said. "At the same time, many cars are trying to turn onto Esker Drive. By helping with the traffic control before and after school, the traffic officer will provide additional safety measures at that intersection and also provide efficiencies of getting the school buses to Kaneland High School in a timely manner."
These new traffic control measures will cost the district $80 per hour with a two-hour minimum that's expected to be about $55,000 for the year. Fuchs acknowledged that the cost is consistent with the amount paid to Kane County for the traffic control it has provided at Kaneland High School.
The agreement is for two years, good through Aug. 31, 2026. The IGA for the officer matches that same timeframe.
Last year, a resource officer suffered minor smoke inhalation while helping students and staff to safety during a fire. The cost for one officer is estimated to be $80,000, which Fuchs said is close to, but higher, than what the district is paying for one at the high school.
"The IGA for the SRO is modeled after the one currently in place with Kane County," Fuchs said. "The only variations are the fact that it's the village of Sugar Grove instead of the Kane County's sheriff's office, and, additionally, the police officer has different times because of how the school day is a different time, so some of those specifics to this building would be the only changes that we have or that we made in the actual intergovernmental agreement. All of the content is pretty much the same."
Effective Sept. 1, the village of Sugar Grove will assign one patrol officer to serve as a resource officer at Harter, working as staffing levels permit, a 40-hour week during work hours (7 a.m. to 3 p.m.) or any generally adjusted start/end time followed by the district every day that students are there.