DALTON, Mass. — The Select Board on Monday voted to recommend that the Central Berkshire Regional School District hire a school resource officer.

 

The Police Chief Deanna Strout advocated for this hire, saying it would make the school safer. 

 

Since Sept. 1 of this year, there have been 125 calls for service involving middle and high school students, she told the Select Board. 

 

Of those, 35 were for threats on social media, 23 for trespassing or noise disturbances, 16 for vandalism, 11 for theft, and nine school-related issues such as students walking out of school. 

 

Other calls involving juveniles included breaking and entering, fights and bullying, underage drinking, gel-gun shooting, sex-crime and drug investigations and one call for a weapon on school property. 

 

Although not all of these incidents happened on school property, all of them involved juveniles. A school resource officer would decrease the amount of time the police are called to schools and prevent future incidents, Strout said. 

 

The chief said having a school resource officer helps build relationships with the students and can proactively work on preventing issues like underage drinking and fighting. 

 

"It is my opinion that a school resource officer would be incredibly valuable and could help alleviate some of these issues proactively as well as deal with them," Strout said. "Instead of pulling our officers off the street to be dealing with juvenile issues, if we had a school resource officer available, they could be doing that."

 

Strout and Executive Assistant Rebecca Whitaker have been working on a grant through the U.S. Department of Justice's Community Oriented Police Services program. .   

 

The funds would cover most of the cost of adding a resource officer to the middle and high school for the next three years. It would cover 75 percent of the cost of the officer and the remaining 25 percent would be covered by the police budget. 

 

To improve the chances of obtaining the grant, Strout was seeking letters of support from the Select Board and school officials. 

 

Superintendent of Schools Leslie Blake-Davis said it would have to be discussed by the Safety and Wellness subcommittee and School Committee because it would involve adding a position that will eventually affect the operating budget. 

 

Strout said, after the meeting, that the position would not affect the school's budget because the cost will come out of the Police Department's budget. 

 

According to Massachusetts state law, a superintendent has to request that a police department provide a school resource officer, subject to appropriation. 

 

The district is holding a Safety and Wellness meeting this month so that the subcommittee can make a recommendation to the School Committee on April 27. 

 

If a vote is made in favor of this position, Davis said she will write a letter of support to include with the grant application. 

 

The grant application deadline is May 11.