Elk Grove Village police officer to work at District 59 schools in Des Plaines amid staffing issues

A second Elk Grove Village police officer now is walking the hallways of Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59 schools in town — and in nearby Des Plaines.

The intergovernmental agreement inked this week between the village and school district calls for the new officer to rotate among the district's five elementary schools within Elk Grove Village.

But the officer also will stop by District 59’s two elementary schools and junior high school within the city of Des Plaines for up to five hours a week, under terms of the deal.

Staffing issues in the Des Plaines Police Department so far have delayed implementation of that town’s school resource officer agreement with District 59.

Mayor Andrew Goczkowski said the officer is expected to begin at Friendship Junior High and Brentwood and Devonshire elementary schools at the start of the second semester.

Goczkowski said several newly-hired officers are in various stages of training, some officers are on family medical leave, and the department also is coping with multiple retirements.

Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson favors the Elk Grove officer filling in at Friendship, which feeds into Elk Grove High School.

Johnson has been an outspoken supporter of police officers in schools for years. In 2023, he compelled District 59 Superintendent Terri Bresnahan to put the hiring of a school resource officer up for a school board vote after earlier accusing district officials of “dragging their feet” on the issue. At one point, Johnson ordered police to increase foot and squad car patrols outside Grove Junior High amid a spike in incidents and calls to the department from the school.

At a village board meeting this week, Johnson thanked the school board — now controlled by his son, board President TR Johnson — for agreeing to expand the school resource officer program into elementary schools.

“The SROs at schools are not just for security. They’re there to have a positive mentoring relationship with students,” Craig Johnson said. “We need to work with even younger kids. A lot of times by the time they get to junior high it’s too late to give them a good direction.”

Now two years after an officer was sent to Grove school, “the difference in that school is night and day,” he said.

Under the deal approved this week, the village and district will split the cost of salary and benefits for each officer. Each governmental entity will pay $171,154, per the billing rate attached to the agreement.

Under the original agreement, District 59 paid three-quarters of the costs and the village paid a quarter.

That is still the cost structure in District 59’s contract with Mount Prospect for an officer at Holmes Junior High School.