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Peters Township parents push for more school resource officers

By Jon Andreassi staff Writer jandreassi@observer-Reporter.Com 4 min read
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With a new sense of urgency since a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, a group of Peters Township parents made it clear to the school board Monday night that they want school resource officers in the district’s elementary buildings.

While there is a school resource officer in both the high school and middle school, none are located at McMurray, Bower Hill or Pleasant Valley elementary schools. The school district pays $168,000 for the current two officers.

“A few weeks ago, my husband and I toured McMurray Elementary School where our daughter is planned to attend this fall. We were taken aback to learn there is not an armed officer present at all times during the school day,” said Charisse Silvestros during public comment at Monday night’s meeting.

Patrick Hindman argued that elementary schools are equally at risk from people planning attacks as the secondary buildings.

“Elementary kids are smaller, less likely to fight back than older kids. This is certainly an idea that active shooters consider,” Hindman said.

Pointing to the shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Hindman added that the response time to these incidents is critical.

“Time is everything when it comes to active shooters. The national police response average is five minutes. This is after someone can recognize there is an active shooter, then call 911, then 911 can process the call and then dispatch the police,” Hindman said. “An SRO on campus for an active shooter, their response time? They’re probably going to be the first one to encounter the shooter. So we could say the response time is zero to one minute. You are simply saving a small amount of money for nine to 10 minutes of potential kill time at our elementary schools.”

During both public comment portions of the meeting, Hindman asked school board members to say whether or not they supported bringing resource officers to the elementary school, but they declined to do so.

At the end of the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Jeannine French spoke to the parents’ concerns. She said the rationale for resource officers was to protect against students attacking other students, which is rare among younger students.

“So the reason for the SROs in the middle school and the high school, we’re protecting from harm within,” French said.

She added that the district is in the process of meeting with Peters Township police and fire departments to discuss their security protocols and hear their recommendations.

“Every year there are new reports out by the Secret Service, by the FBI, making recommendations to the schools. We review those. We talk to, again, our police force. I’ve started those conversations with the chief and we will do this work.”

Also Monday, the school board adopted its final budget, along with a 3.4% tax increase.

The final amount for the spending plan is $76,794,406, about $200,000 less than the preliminary budget passed in May.

“Since the time of the proposal, we did get a couple additional retirements … Some of the other estimated expenditures we had we got real numbers for, so those were incorporated into this budget,” said Brad Rau, the district’s business manager.

The previous millage rate of 14.58 mills was raised by about 0.49 mills. This will mean about $147 in additional taxes for a property assessed at $300,000.

During public comment, Robert Simmons, a Peters Township farmer, asked the board to consider the effects property tax increases have on farms.

He said after a tax increase in 2017, he went from a $17,000 property tax bill to over $40,000.

“The increases in taxes, in a real simple way, it drives people out. It drives farmers out. It simply does not make sense to farm in a place where the taxes are high,” Simmons said.

The tax increase had been planned as part of the construction of the new high school. Over five years, taxes increased by 1.57 mills. This is the final planned increase associated with the project.

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