St. Charles likely to hire middle school resource officers

The St. Charles Police Department plans to hire two police officers who will be stationed at the community's middle schools starting next academic year.

School resource officers have been assigned to St. Charles North and East high schools for the last several years, though St. Charles Unit District 303 administrators said they're increasingly pulled away to address issues at Thompson and Wredling middle schools. An agreement proposed for 2019-20 would add two officers to the program to provide coverage at the middle schools.

The district would be responsible for paying a total of $195,552, which covers 176 school days or about 68 percent of the officers' salaries and benefits, according to the one-year deal. The remaining costs would be funded by the city, police Chief James Keegan said.

St. Charles aldermen supported the concept during a committee meeting this week. The city council is set to vote next week on the agreement, which was approved by the school board Feb. 11.

"It's the school and city getting together trying to ensure we have a safe school environment for kids and faculty to teach and learn," Keegan said. "We want to integrate our officers with schoolchildren at a younger age ... to not only teach some of our programming but also to build relationships."

The officers, who are categorized as detectives, have to undergo special training and receive certification to work in a school with juveniles, Keegan said. When school isn't in session, they'll be reassigned to patrol or investigations duties within the police department.

"We reap the reward of having the officers augment our staff in the summer months (and during breaks)," Keegan said.

Since 2011, the city has been covering the costs of the two high school resource officers in exchange for using district-owned land to build a water tower. That payment deal extends for one more year, after which the district will fund the school resource duties for all four officers, Keegan said.

School resource officers' responsibilities outlined in the agreement include: forming relationships with students, staff members and other district police liaisons; holding presentations on safety and law enforcement; planning substance abuse prevention programs; and referring troubled students to proper professional services. They'll also handle runaways, truancies and other crime-related cases involving students.

District 303 officials have called the agreement a "trial year," saying they'll revisit the concept in a year and evaluate whether it was effective. School resource officers are expected to meet periodically with school and district administrators to assess the program.