School Resource Officer - Public Forum

001[Music] she right [Music] yes oh the face yeah bu good evening everyone Chief andanada and I are happy to be here this evening in this public forum at the invitation of the Boon um Board of Selectmen we want you to know that we both support the role of the school resource officer in our schools as a proactive measure towards Safety and Security in all possible scenarios and because it builds positive relationships with students staff administrators and families so the purpose of tonight's Forum really is to inform the public about the role of the SRO in schools and what they can bring to our schools ALS also we want to be able to listen to your concerns answer questions and unravel some of the confusions or misunderstandings about the role of the resource officer particularly as

002it relates to our school community and our culture and also to gauge the pulse of the community and whether or not to move forward with funding for the SRO position in our Boyston Elementary School and toono Regional Middle High School so tonight we look forward to an open honest conversation with with the stakeholders in our audience and appreciate your interest in willingness to attend tonight we'll hear from chief anunziata chief shner from the Berlin Police Department and Sergeant Dave Golding from the Berlin Police Department who serves as the school liaison officer at Berlin Memorial School about the benefits of this role and you'll hear a bit little bit from me as well after we get a chance to do the presentation we're going to open up the floor to questions and concerns you see around

003you two microphones and we'd ask you either to come up to the mic if you have questions um or we can bring the mic over to you if you're more comfortable with that the idea here is to just have a dialogue with one another to understand what you're worried about to to start to just open up that those lines of communication so at this time I'd like to introduce the Boon police chief John andanada hi good evening everyone um so if we don't uh if we don't answer all your questions today uh feel free to ask at the end of it or uh reach out to Carol or myself directly and we'll get an answer back uh where we start from all right so uh the purpose of the uh School uh school resource officer

004is uh just to enhance safety uh build relationships um there's a lot uh there's a lot that goes into a school resource officer it's not just taking a patrol officer and sticking with the schools it has to be the right person for the job has to be the uh person with the right temperament there's a significant amount of uh training that goes into it uh goal is to build uh build positive relationships uh between the police department the staff and the students uh parents also uh key objectives uh safety security education uh uh uh drug prevention again positive relationships mergen response Community Police and youth Outreach uh just again another resource for staff uh there's a lot of uh facts uh or there there's there's a lot of misunderstanding of what a school resource officer

005school resource officer is and what they are not um there are some people that think uh you're going to get Rambo um and then there are other people that think you're going to get a a police officer that is just look looking to arrest any uh student uh staff member Etc that they can um so this kind of the facts and myths um people may ask what do what do you mean an advocate for students how does that work there's a lot of U there's there's a lot of stuff within the criminal justice system that just the lay person is not going to know um having that school resource officer uh be present at school can help guide staff uh students uh and parents Guardians into uh these different resources uh whether it's uh from

006mental health uh the substance abuse um treny uh V various different uh things um having obviously the law enforcement presence that's that's been kind of a a main front leader in the need for school resource officer uh Safety and Security Uh current prevention um you know there's a lot of I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with dare program um there's still dare program there's still uh there's a competitor program called lead law enforcement against drugs that has different curriculum from uh prek up until seniors in school um this is all stuff that uh we'd like to implement within the school to again help educate people and then obviously have us there for emergency response uh a lot of people uh are misinformed um W with with a school resource officer cannot be used

007for administrative discipline um it was in the 2018 uh criminal justice uh reform and it's also in our current mou um I mean an administrative issu is a school issue the police officer the school resource officer cannot will not get involved uh there's a a lot of people that think it's just simply an armed guard without a purpose again um that there is very much a purpose for the school resource officer that we'll that we'll get into um that it's an over militarized mentality again going back to that Rambo mentality it's not that um and a uniformed approach meaning that you take one school resource officer um and apply it to every single uh school system that's not the way it works the school resource officers in Massachusetts are going to be widely variant upon

008their uh their Set uh policies and procedures are should be reflective of your community uh values uh and that's how the Boon police policy sign so the school resource officer their standing operating procedures their policies and procedures are all going to be reflective of our community so in 2018 uh there there was a Juvenile Justice Reform uh there's a lot that went into it uh basically the uh the takeaway is that there were a lot of nonviolent criminal offenses uh that were decriminalized uh uh non-violent crimes such as uh uh dist disturb by public assembly disorderly conduct things that were kind of the go-to catchall if if the police department needed to get involved though was not a thing anymore though that's all considered administrative uh discipline now which again the police department can't get

009involved uh they increase excuse me the age from Criminal responsibility from 7 to 12 meaning Under 12 you can't get charged with the crime um and then it changes the way judges uh handle things if they are brought into the court system um one of the things that also uh touch upon was uh was instituting uh the requirements for the school resource officer resource officers uh and Justus um our current mou uh Chief shner uh would would took the lead on it it's uh it it mimics the W County District Attorney's guidelines for our mou that's one we have in place um so it was already it corrected things that other communities had the correct fortunately for us we were already operating in that um there there there is a uh there is cost to

010school resource officer um there's the ongoing expense and then there's the initial upfront expense uh things uh things such as uh uh vehicle Mobile Radio uh the health uh initial Health exams and then the miscellaneous is office equipment stuff to to create a school resource uh office in the school um you know uh it adds up between 180,000 to 210,000 for year one and that includes the officers benefits um Medical Dental Etc uh did you wanna talk about the breakdowns um so uh so it's a shared it's a shared cost between the Boon police department Town of Boon and uh and a school district so just for numbers um we estimated that uh 75% of the school resource officers time would be spent at Tanto and 25% of the time would be spent at the

011Boon Elementary School this number is subject to change it's uh obviously very different reasons why the school resource officer would be at B compared to Toronto uh BS is really going to be building those uh positive relationships uh making themselves available for advocacy where in toono um obviously larger uh or large larger group of people uh and usually more indepth uh problems um but again this is uh change this is something to change as the needs change um so again you know it's uh in Massachusetts where in the process of rolling out a new active threat uh a new active threat training where every massachusett police officer and fire fighter is gonna be trained in the exact same way uh building those positive relationships um I was a product of a very uh if I

012didn't have a very involved police department and a very involved family um who knows what my path would have been um I've I've lived it um I've worked with school resource officers and they do a lot of behind the scenes stuff that uh they don't get credit for um they're a uh a safe person to talk to uh they're they're the quiet room where students uh who may be having a difficult time uh can can go in there do and do their class work the uh dist the wi District Attorney's office is uh rolling out this program uh it just called Handle With Care um it's for those kids that the school may not know know what's going on in their uh personal life and their off time of school and the role of this

013program is to uh you know have the school resource officer have the police department um notify the school not give particular details but just say you know hey uh you know uh you know John enata he he's gonna have a difficult uh day the next few days just Handle With Care so if he's not prepared for that test if he didn't come in with that homework it's uh key to the staff say you know what uh cops you need to cut some slack we'll cutting some slack uh those are all uh those are all goals of this uh of this program um the uh the the districts in our immediate area Clinton North Ro shrewbury WUSA westbo um they all have successful uh school resource officer programs is that that's all yeah I think that

014was a l okay so just to add to what John was talking about I think we all understand it takes that saying it takes a village to raise a child it takes a village to hear things that are going on to share information with one another to take care of our students in different ways and how we see the resource officers bringing looking at this our schools from a different lens I think the principles can can attest to the fact that a lot is going on here during the day much of it of course is academic and students are engaged but other things are happening kind of another layer of of events that are taking place and incidents are taking place we want to be mindful of what's Happening as well there so that we

015can be proactive rather than reactive about addressing them I looked at some statistics I didn't bring them with me I contemplated with sharing with you you know the kind of fear piece of this that that the rise in school shootings the rise in in what's happening uh in in our schools with our children I don't think that's who we are necessarily as a community but I think we all can say maybe you know we might be what can we do to help our children now in so many ways so we can avoid incidents in the future and I think that that's really what we're trying to look at with this support of not only our resource officer but the mental health providers that we have in the school I did want to share with you

016that as I was I was look thinking about who's in our school as far as mental health guidance so we have between our school psychologists we have guidance counselors we have adjustment counselors we also have a family success partnership that we do with as and Valley um collaborative in total we spend about 700 $130,000 a year on Mental Health Providers and support among those individuals I mentioned for services for our children so I don't think we lack in that kind of support for the small District but this adds another lens for when we think about it not a lot of money for those 10-month period of time that we have them because these individuals will then go on and serve into in the community in the summertime so we're looking at a 10-month period period

017of time from our perspective the SRO brings to the table that Safety and Security emergency response not only because of those scary things we hear about every day with with with critical threats and into our school but also other kinds of incidents that are going on in school emergency situations checking doors making sure everything is safe and secure for our children watching the lens of suspicious behaviors suspicious individuals we have a really interesting U side note we um you know obviously you know that we had a new um food service group coming in um and so the first day that that food service director came into the building he didn't have any kind of identification with him so fortunately he got stopped by the custodian and by one of the teachers who said can you

018tell who can you please um I just I'm sure you're doing something could you tell tell me who you are he was wise those two individuals were wise enough to stop that individual and he really appreciated it because who was he right how did he get in he knew how he got in because he was the food service director but others were not familiar with him so this is just like another pair of eyes during the school day for us I think it's true that these individuals that and particularly the the person chosen for this position will build those positive relationships I support community policing I think it's a different kind of policing than as John said that kind the image of some of the higher I want say higher but different types of policing

019that we often see coming to the scene because they get to know our students um John uh Eric and John goody can tell you a little bit about that just in still maintaining those uh relationships years Beyond uh the children's time in school so I think it's really important that their proactive and that they get to know our students um and certainly stay in touch with them long after their time here also there a portion of education and enforcement for example those opportunities to visit classrooms um John mentioned the Dare program over in Berlin and other types of programs that educate children not about the good and the bad and I'm here to be scary about making good choices in the future because the reality of it is there are consequences and we we don't

020think about it that way as our children are going through school but in fact when you get in the upper grades if you're driving your car and you're a teenager and some of us may have had that experience like there's there's rules to follow these individuals in a safe way can talk about that with them can get to know them if they see them on the road and say hey you're your blinker is out your you know your headlight is out your you know where you heading whatever it is not where you're heading but what what like being concerned about what they're saying I think also talking about drugs right and alcohol situations that that are going to affect these students if they do get consequences for that so this is a way also I

021think to the resource officers can be a resource to parents who need support who need be able to reach out to somebody in addition to the folks in the school setting to find out what about those legal ramifications because these individuals are extremely knowledgeable extremely helpful in that area as well so the other thing I would just mention to you before I turn it over to Eric and and goodie is the following if we put this position in place and you'll see this in theou that we gave out it's not just that we hire the person and they go off there's a significant amount of training and introduction to the community and and voice that the community would have in the selection of this individual being able to come in and meet with the different

022organizations meeting with the staff members meeting with the um Administration getting to know this and they have continuous training they're probably in the field of of community policing one of the most well-versed and trained in in the field because this is their work to do so they get continuous training um they know how to deescalate situations and that's going to be really important for them to be able to work with students in that way um and then finally that we will have a way for the chief to get feedback along with me from representative groups of teachers parents and students along the way so there's checks and balances to this position as well it's not just again we have to evaluate that individual annually so so there there is a structure to all of this

023I think if we look at thatou that we made copies of you'll be able to see that laid out a little more um not clearly a little more extensively in that in that document so with that I'll ask Eric or goody if you wanted to share any other thoughts before we turn it over to questions turn the questions rather hear some of the questions because we're gonna compliment what John said there's a lot of questions that aren't on these slides I'm sure people have okay thank you okay so let's do that John Campbell has he hasn't volunteered I have run the mic he will bring the mic to you you or you're welcome to get up there's a mic Over by Eric and goody if you would like to um access that that questions concerns

024comments for us hi Greg Lano a question is the SRO a unique individual or a position filled by more than one person no so it would be uh so it it would be one it would be one person um and more likely than not it would be an external hire I've uh I've talked to my staff um it's not something any one of my staff uh would be interested so we be we would be hired externally uh specifically for the school resource officer position so then would that position be confined to the same vacation schedule as the school calendar no sry um I I reach I reached out to other other Chiefs and it was do you uh do act to the position while they're on vacation you limit their vacation it's um the uh

025the uh General consensus was if they go if they G be out for more than a few days they let School know uh they usually have a second person that's trained to be a school resource officer who would be the point of contact if there's an issue off a school but no they're not they're not limited to the same schedule as a school and so the SRO we're talking about just service the Tanto and be is Berlin not going to have an SRO would that be a separate persons just to cover their Elementary School it's to my understanding the Berlin uh the town of Berlin is satisfied with how uh the burlin moral schools handled is that fair John uh Cort Berlin um here for two reasons I'm a member of the fincom in Berlin

026and also interested in education generally and the kids um my question is about this slide right here um you have indicated that the following school districts have successful school resource officer programs they're listed what I would like to know is do these communities have um SRO in both elementary schools and high schools and secondly um how many SRO officers do you estimate they would have I look at this and with the exception perhaps of Clinton these are very big school systems with um considerable budgets and lots of kids yeah uh so it's my understanding that the that the schools listed here have one school resource officer who has primary responsibility in the high schools and then uh they still W to see the other schools I'm from North bro um I know he spends detective

027Sullivan he spends the majority of his time at Algonquin um and then that he goes and does the alist drills Etc at the other schools so Sim similar to how we have it set up or how we would have it set up okay so um my follow-up question is an SRO who is trained for high school students um and then Works in elementary schools as well would have to be pretty remarkable human being because those are two very different School populations and um I I mean perhaps there are people who are that skilled um but I wonder if they have should have different skill sets I guess that's my question yeah so so that's the uh I I guess that's just the nature of our profession is we have to have that tool or we

028have to have that tool bag that has all those different skills in it and the school resource officer is no different it's it's ultimately we're looking for temperament they have they have to have the right temperament in the drive to uh to be in hi I'm Karen MC I'm also from the finance committee in bston um I have a couple of questions I guess I well a comment first I find it a little disappointing that we feel we need one in our elementary school when burin doesn't feel it they they do I feel like our town is you know we'll answer that okay but one one other quick question which is when you split the time 75% 25% is that a full eight hour day yeah yeah so so they they'll be there for their

02940 hours a week they would be assigned to the schools okay so I mean would there potentially not be to be any students in the school as part of that time so if there're so because the schools have left for the day or because the schools are on vacation Etc well I I guess Never full hours right yes but so so but the uh tando uh School traffic Etc starts about 6:45 7 o'clock and then bees dismissal is about 3:30 so there's overlap the officer the officer still has to uh still has to check up on on the uh daily activity logs so there is prep work the officer has to do before he enters the school so reading reading through the previous logs uh shift uh shift history what happened um where all the

030calls happened I'm not sure whether Greg was kind of trying to get at this but so in this in the summer are we paying this person are they working for the town like what yeah so on so on vacations and so like School vacations and then summertime they go back to the police department and they just fall into a designated shift uh for the control so then would the cost of this person be more than the 200,000 that you put up there because you that was said for 10 months no so uh so it's approximately 10 months they'd be working for the uh school and then if the other two months they'd be going to the police department so would be a shared expense between the district and the Police Department would like toar I

031uh well first I'll go to Cliff real quick and say a different set of skill sets that would mean could we send our 24 year-old good police officer to Gates Bond Road to your house or do I have to come because I'm out to pasture we're police officers first and foremost so you have to have the skills it isn't an age thing thing it's a highly trained position like our Firearms instructor our drug investigator our sexual abuse people are all highly trained in special Fields but first and foremost we are police officers we can give it the name or give it the title they're there to serve the community the community they're going to specialize in is the school district and the children and there's a lot of vagueness and different things and I've worked

032with each one of those uh School resources recently working with the Clinton one and he reached out to me Paul and said you know goodie what's uh this situation up at toono and like that I said who's the officer there said we don't have one and and he was shocked and we've always done it behind the scenes with John and his great staff working together but he has other responsibilities as a chief now and running the department things so we don't have a specialized person here to work closely with those other ones there so many things came up they were all over the place most School Districts The there again it's a police officer they can still fill in shifts they can work Sunday night they can work Christmas when another officer wants to take

033the day off in the summertime they go to regular Patrol they go to a thing called admin schedule unlike other officers but they're first and foremost police officers right Chief you know and and he's not getting into really the minutia that so they're 247 and when you answer the first PR about it's not going to be Rambo I've stood on the stage every year when we do the safety talks with all the staff do our training in cooperation with Boyston I'm not Rambo but I assure them Rambo's coming through the door and a couple of times we've introduced them to those police officers that are highly trained in that field I'm the liaison the spokesperson and I work with them um as far as Berlin we're in a unique situation we're a small community officer

034bomb started the program program years ago with the D programs we introduced to him and he was our school resource officer before it was a mandated thing under governor Patrick that every school district had to have one designated under a reform law and uh and I picked up after that under Chief Galvin we call the Community Service Officer working with the seniors Outreach programs and things like that we modify it based on our population our budget and I I don't see parents here I see most of what I call the Bean counters and the people that are respons wor running the town and that's your job and we do it in a way that I'm able to be there not there and back and forth and through the grace of Chief shner and the rest

035of the department it's flexible um it's a lot of work and a lot of it's not counted or Quantified I don't go on to social media and tell you what I did I mean an average day for me is to pull up first thing in the morning after going to the station and being a police officer and checking the town real quick and checking with the other guys guys pulling in seeing the bus hey how you doing bus driver going to tell me problems visibility plowing road rage that and take that write that down carry it in check with the janitor going in check in with the cafeteria the front staff all the teachers go over stuff with the principal answer some minor questions because relatively very small I'm not going to scare you still

036the safest place in the world US public schools but we have prevention programs in place um checking with the teachers and there's a lot of behind the scenes things custody issues probate issues divorce things security issues building security issues I'm I'm not going to stand here and say that it's you know a war zone but we're constantly maintaining safety for the parents then it's outside real quick with John if I have the time drop off meet parents hey your sticker your tire your plate light all stuff prevention hi kids how you doing holding a bag that's snug you know stuck in the door not talking to answering residents questions that see me there about problems they're having as John says let the line go Sergeant goody stop talking kids get in talk to the staff

037once again there's just hundreds of things that happen that I don't write down in a chart for Chief shner and we throw it on social media and he can report back to the selectman it's prevention and behind the scenes reaching out to Carol and the staff and reaching out to John quite often and his officers talking what's going on at the high school level it's a little more involved Electronics cyber bullying there's so much that goes on that these kids are potential victims to internal problems I get phone calls at home from parents ties that I've made with college kids having problems I reach out to other police agencies to assist them that doesn't go in the town report we just call it police info because it's private we have a memorandum understanding um internal

038staff problems you have a large population of employees that have everyday life issues and we work with them on that to make it a better environment I could go on and on along L them but we're in a unique position in Boon rather Berlin that we can do both and I think what a board member said a couple of weeks ago when they were talking about we have one by de facto I got to tell you I sat in the audience going yeah de facto all right that was a slap in the face I do it because it's a job we do and I do it for the parents and the students and I work very close with John his staff and all these other agencies do the same thing it's just we're lucky and

039we're unique that you don't have anybody in this position I'm really surprised so if that answers a little bit about that so you know that's what is but it's a great program but once again it's a police officer clip you know and they have specialized training egstone select board member of Berlin Carol a question for you um how soon do you want this is this this fiscal year or next fiscal year we were looking for it in the budget for this coming fiscal year but um John can talk a little bit about the training involved that person probably would not come in till mid year because by the time he goes out to look for this person um we interview the person's hired and then goes out for that very specific additional training that they

040would need to have to come forward so mid year of next year um chief for you you mentioned training or Carol I think that you had mentioned additional training when is that training going to occur would it be during the school year which would be time away from the SRO or would it be in the summer no so I wouldn't I wouldn't put the officer in the school until all the training was completed that's depending on when the training is available but what about additional follow on training I can't imagine it's a oneand done no so so the ongoing in service training would be uh during school year can I uh step in um all the SRO training is uh January Christmas break February break and April break and then uh the last day of

041school Ser golding's gone for uh three days three days right away the training Works around the school schedule the Massachusetts criminal justice training Council developed training that works around so when February vacation I have to go to a class you know summer ation there's extra classes going on why just scheduling they make special inservice training that all police officers have to do and they do a school resource officer program so you're working around things like that more questions and then I'll stop hogging um I didn't have a chance to read the the U memorandum of understanding but will the community be involved in the interview process for this position from both Berlin and Boyston um we we would be uh there there' be of course room for feedback uh ultimately the person serving as a

042as police officer I would involve the superintendent uh certainly in on the process but as s Fon pointed out there're still they still a police officer um after uh we give a consideration and then uh then we move on from there and last question what have you done to search for Grants to pay for this officer uh as of now I don't of any available grants that are open so there's uh uh the the cops Grant should be coming out they hire that gives uh municipalities funding um to hire police officers I don't necessarily know if we would meet those standards I'm on the office office of Grant research weekly checking on what grants I can apply for if there's a grant out there sure you I can I'll apply for it we we often

043apply for these kinds of Grants if they're available for sure the the challenge with the grants in the long term is that we don't necessarily get them for the following year or they're they're only good for a certain period of time and so having somebody already in the budget and we do this with with uh teaching staff as well we know that we we're assured we have them if we go into the totally into the grant um mode if we lose the grant we lose the officer that's the only that's the risk of that but we're always we always are sharing grants across the board sending them to each other so we could certainly like look into that this uh this last uh this last uh year think there were only four or five communities

044Massachusetts that were successful in getting that cops Grant so it's a fiveyear program year one uh the program pays 75% of the off salary year two is 50 year three is 25 and four and five it's fully on the municipality um but they they were they were all large agencies um I don't recall seeing any agencies of our size so I don't know if you have to meet that specific criteria but last year it was it wasn't something I was I was looking at but again this year this year is probably going be different um I just have three quick comments I'm a parent of eight years in the district and I've been on the PTO for seven years at Tanto and Bs so kind of have some firsthand know also one of my daughters

045is a graduate of the D in fifth grade at a different District in I know this may be kind of coincidence but they had 32 students and of just keeping in touch with them probably more than half have diverted away from substance abuse and trying it and I don't know if it was through Scare Tactics but they love their DARE officer who is a parent of children here from another District um so I just want to give a thumbs up for dare if it can get to be yes over the years if there's time second I just wanted to commend Sergeant goody volunteering I've witnessed ter and I on pich and we volunteer a lot of events at the school and I'm just so impressed when the kids come up to you you're just walking

046through the cafeteria they're like hey Sergeant goody Sergeant goody so those are Berling kids who the boyon kids haven't met really but in some of the Bon kids like who's that who's that I'm like oh that's our their officer from BMS so I just wanted to let you know that and I will tell you when you instill somebody in the district here in a high school middle school which once again needs more attention I'm never downplaying the first grader that I open a yogurt for at lunch those gogurts the stress and you're struggling and it's going to get on the uniform those two uh children 20 years from now reached out for me or talked to me there was a student getting picked up in the parking lot um and and we handled the Civil

047probate situation with that family and they were comfortable with this so that's the first and foremost thing you can do it here and John was doing it years ago with me and being a sergeant and patrolman the best he could juggling it so you've been spoiled as a community that you've had the benefit of a lot of volunteer and I say that to the I understand the fiscal responsibility of the finance committee and the elected officials but you're a parent and the cost if I put a slip in for everything I do um first of all I'm looking at that and that's better paying than I'm getting in Berlin so I'm going to talk to John afterwards on that first slide little plug to you up there but the cost fact factor it's it's a

048cost all right and um you will have somebody here whoever he picks he or she I work closely with the female in um bolon Thea split by three towns and I take a lesson from her of cooperation there isn't anything they don't do in that District they don't involve stow and Lancaster with the Bolton school resource officer similar Geographic with three towns we're Berlin we have berin students here we have continuity but the school sits in Bolton so they are the primary person but she works in concert with Lancaster and Stow to be efficient as I do with the asit school resource officer and there's one in every school in uh cliff and malro he or she reaches out to me and and that's how it works but you will have that same result and

049when you're looking at numbers and finances is it worth it is not worth it that same relationship or that high or hello may Save a Life when they're in a situation where it's friendly and receptive and I'm very honest with them about I am a police officer I have laws to enforced we have discretion but if we can prevent something from happening and and that's part of the Dare program that I've showed to John and he took the lead no pun intender with lead and started something on his his own years ago when you didn't have anything and I shared with him the Dare and dare is changed it's not drug abuse resistance education it's decide assess respond and evaluate and you have to ask yourself tonight you know having a police officer assigned to

050the schools in Boon working in conjunction for safety and prevention was it right decision you know assess respond and evaluate it's at the end of the day it's the right thing to do but I understand the fiscal responsibility so in violation of some of our contracts in the union I do volunteer once in a while to show up with the schools and do things but I hope uh thank you as a parent I like to hear the parents talk about you are the parents you are the taxpayers you are the community and you're the most involved but I respect the elected officials that have taken a responsibility to balance the budget too so you have to be open in your discussion so uh goody and I have talked about this several times it's uh it's

051it's a remarkable thing when uh so I oversaw the schools as the liaison officer for a number of years and uh it's amazing the connections you make with kids and how you could talk them down um I received numerous phone calls while I was off duty uh it was always one of when the on duty officer would call it was always one of your kids is out of control mean one of my usually was a parto kid and they throw it on speaker phone and I talked them on the phone and it was just I mean you can just flip it because it's not just some nameless cop now now they're talking to someone that they actually have a personal connection with um I saw a few weeks ago I I I respond out to

052a uh to a call um family was going through through uh some difficult times and I could hear the argument with the police from the outside soon as I walked in uh parents go thank God it's officer John and the kid go kid put his head down goes ah crap it's officer John it was like Hey obviously for privacy I won't use but it was come outside let's talk talk about what's going on dude you can't do that it was just a situation that more likely not was going to end in a use Force thing was able to uh quickly get overturned because that personal connection we had and all this is what the goal of the school resource officer is is building building those relationships that are ongo I I do want to add

053to what you both are saying too I don't think we could have imagine this more than five like five years ago or maybe a little bit longer this is this opportunity is a result of the work that's been the groundwork that's been done with our administrator with our police departments and our fire departments too through these past number of years we have come together in a partnership the officers are very familiar coming into the schools they're very comfortable we call each other all the time some of the incidents that you know as parents we've all been involved in critical incidents we're on the phone with each other we know each other extremely well we know how to get in touch even if we hear something going on these are the these are the people that

054I would put my own children and grandchildren in their hands it's community policing it's it's a different kind of scene and we are unique here and these individuals reflect who we are just as we reflect as Educators who we are in the community these officers reflect who we are as well in the community and that's why you have folks like John and Eric and goody here there are people a couple of quick questions I'm ever Crossland a parent of a first grader at BS um and just one first question so where's the budget for this coming from is this going to come from the school budget at all yeah it it would go into the school budget for the 10 months right yes um and also I know I understand you're saying presence doesn't look

055like Rambo uh can you describe that a little bit more what is the officer carrying or wearing a vest what does that look like yeah um the uh uniform would be ultimately what I decide um I gotta be honest with you it would probably just be a it would be just regular uniform um but my my comment about the rambos I talk to people and they think that you know they think of you know essentially like a a special forces officer who's just you know so tactical and just ready to stop any threat and that's just that that's not it's a it's a it's it's a patrol officer in the school who's capable of handling all the situations not just there for taffs so that that was that was a ramble cop more like more

056likely than not it would probably uh probably just be a regular police uniform um some school resource officers they're in a polo with their with their gun belt um it just no I'm open for feedback on that if we if we got that fire eventally with a gun they it would 100% be with fire so you know as a parent of a elementary school student U and exposure to somebody with a gun even in a police uniform um in this town seems uh out context to me um and yeah and then the other I guess the other question on the on the elementary school front I understand the the preventive policing and certainly appreciate that and the relationship and Community Based policing um are there incidents or is there has there been a trend upwards

057in incidents at the elementary school where you've seen a need for um a heavier presence or police presence at the at the elementary school statistically speaking no so so the elementary school the goal the goal there is to begin those relationships start start start building those positive relationships getting the kids familiar with the police officer and that role it's more being an advocate for families uh help helping them along with it um the firearm um I've had this conversation a lot with parents as I was in the schools a lot that's the of Education um not asking you whether your firearms in the house or not but eventually your child is going to be in someone's home that has a fire um it's it's again it's stting that education part of every time I walk

058especially the elementary school um if they're in uh kindergarten first second grade they never will get me they're always looking at everything in my tool belt um so I when I used to teach even for the fifth graders when I used to teach a program in there it was all right first things first what are we going to talk about my belt today get the Curiosity out there and then let's move on so John I will yes there is an up kit threats cyber threats phone in threats it's a different world in 2024 there's a lot more activity and threats locally and around us we practice for this and we're prepared if you were in first grade uh or your child was you'd be introduced to me through the te teacher or you'd meet me

059at the uh School open house or before we meet in preschool in kindergarten John and I talk to the prospective students usually when they're coming in uh to sign in and move into Berlin because they're checking their address to make sure that they're actually from the district because we're such a valuable High learning district they want to come here so we make sure they're not sneaking in and we check their address and I meet them and have a one-on-one conversation what we do there isn't a student in BMS that doesn't know what the most important part of my uniform is and you know what that is what do you think it is I'm gonna ask you right here it's my pen I'm constantly talking to them about that and when I get a new student

060that's out of District or formally homeschooled and there's the fascination like I had and they're looking at my duty belt which we talk about for second third grade about the tools we draw away from this whole object uh we do a safety thing about it because they're going to be exposed like the chief said but what you know what do you think my gun is made of and I you know that's part of the conversation you know metal aluminum it's almost all plastic and that gives into a whole 40 minute lesson about how dangerous even Toya replicas are that you don't know and to teach them to call 911 and they'll never get in trouble this is a whole safety thing we do with them but every student knows this is the most important part

061of my uniform and when I walk in BMS or if I come up here I jump into the lesson plan and talk about oh yeah I could do home you know I go to police school next week I still take tests in fact he sent me something he was missing something one of my test and I shared that with the kids yeah Chief shner said I didn't complete something I have to study do homework my pen you know what is your pen do it just wrote in the log Sergeant goody was at the first grade classroom helping hand out things and talk about safety so that three months from now they can look at my homework and say sag goody there was an incident down by the school were you at the school yes I

062was all right we see you we on duty in the log look at your homework my homework says I was there from 8:30 to 11 o'clock what did I observe like that and so the kids remember that so when I see a new student I love when it goes hey kids what's the most important part of my uniform your pen and they're proud and I always tell them I only hear hands they can't shout out so we demystify it but we point out how dangerous it is and they can't even I can't tell the difference I'm not the raino gun expert between a real one and a toy one and I'm going to secure it and bring in one of our experts and no one's going to get hurt and I'm going to write it

063down with my pen what happened and we'll have a story and everybody be safe so I hope I got both there's a higher rate of incident a lot of it doesn't make the press a lot of it's handled internally with the principles the school resource officer and the Chiefs and then the demystifying the tools so they're comfortable but but I as a parent I truly expect that question and I sit down with people privately when John recommends it to me and and talk about what I do so I hope that answered that because that's a personal one for me too I uh Julie Malik um I'm on the Berlin incom so I just want a clarification since the budget came up again you said that it was roughly 63k is that just salary or is

064that also Al paying for all the other expenses to support the officer yeah so uh so that so that's the 10-month period and the the remainder would be uh on Fall underne Police Department yeah but when you showed your other slide you showed a whole bunch of expenses yeah so so how and that's much higher than yeah I'm not sure that's to the numbers don't really match up so the so the salary range for a boyon police officer is about $30 23 cents 3597 the benefits health insurance Etc uh the there's an educational incentive so if you have an associates degree uh bachelor's degree master's degree you get between that 3 and 12,000 the initial uniform uh purchase that the uh the onetime purchase from the collective bargaining agreement is 1,700 going on uh every

065other year after that is 1,500 there's an initial Department purchase that the off that the department so oil police car have to provide to the officer jackets uh leather gear Etc that's approximately 7,000 uh the vehicle and Equipment obviously that's a onetime purchase the mobile radio to go into the vehicle that's a onetime purchase uh the miscellaneous office equipment that just like I said the out the actually I'm kind of confused because the vehicle usually has to be replaced so we have say one time purchase it will eventually so so so it's it's the initial purchase so we we usually get five years out of a cruiser so every five years yes you you would have to count on that say something all right I get what you're asking so the 63,000 is the piece

066that would be allocated to the schools town of Boon since the officer will be reporting into John will be a boon police officer the town would be paying for certain expenses on here I believe including the uniform we talked about the vehicle radio all that stuff so that 6 that's the piece that's going to get allocated annually to the school so what would be in the Berlin budget would be the 17,000 right right about 16 17,000 right we were factoring what how many students right whatever perent those percentages 47,000 right okay so they so having that broken out more clearly would be really great because it's a bit muddled right now the way that slide is no we absolutely will no doubt hey I'm oops um stel I don't have a child here anymore he

067graduated a couple years ago um we some retired police officer was one of those towns Westboro the high schools about 12200 students so it's a little bit bigger seven schools total we have one resource office in that whole town could use three or four easily the answer I understand your concern sir our resource offic is playing close 100% we tried it years ago the uniform your concern came up with the students in so he went to plane clothes you don't even know he's armed don't even know he's got a radio he's got his own office there he's got an unbo car so that works out fine what we haven't talked about all those programs AG gr we talked about and what these gentlemen talked about what we haven't talked about people don't want to face

068reality is active shoo is folks it can happen anywhere don't ever say it can't happen in my backyard it can happen most in critical thing we can have is response time to have an officer in the school is the most important thing you can can have when you have an arm Intruder okay and she talked about mental health that's a real issue before I retired that was a real issue real issue so don't say you know I don't want him in there I don't want her in there it's critical to have somebody in this school my son was here still I'd be pushing for this the most important thing is response time to have that officer here um the high school principal actually has a has a radio directly on our frequen Rel leas frequency

069something happens he can call us usually the school resource officer most of his time is in the high school and he floats around to the elementary school he can only be in so many places at one time I 100% support of this for those issues it can happen folks and to say now we don't want it and something happens how are we going to feel to parents how are we going to feel I leave you with that thank you um thank you to the retired officer it's an important point and oh I'm Mary Porter I'm from Berlin uh I do wear a finance committee hat um and I wear a few other hats around town um let me just go back to what he said about the seriousness of this and and a couple of

070comments on that the first one is yaldi and and I don't think that you know my heart goes out to parents children to the children to the teachers in the rooms to everybody in the schools with what we have going on in our society right now but do not assume that an armed resource officer in the school is going going to guarantee safety and we know that from our history the whole thing is a tragedy so you know when a very wise person said to me once what does fear me false evidence appearing real okay so what can we do and and you know Chief anunziata I don't want to get you in trouble because you're over that age of 12 and you know I don't want to you know get you into any kind

071of hot water but one of the things that I'm hearing here tonight and I've been hearing all along and I'm active in the community and I care deeply about these communities I don't have any kids I want our children these towns to be educated involved citizens when they become adults and I want to make sure that we do that and we deliver for them so what what you have in these two towns in Berlin we have pretty active community policing tradition that goes back decades and decades and you know Chief I don't want to disparage anything going on but I think what I'm hearing is that in Boon we'd like more of that and and so the over arching issue that we want to achieve is this safety and this communication in our communities question

072is how do we get there and then I asked the question how do we get here tonight and as I understand what's been the information given out to the public is the school committee initiated a drive to get a school resource officer in our school district okay and appropriately our district superintendent costell respond responded the schools in question are in the town of Boyston so Chief anuna is the chief person those two people are the decision makers I have I like to read the law so I have here a copy of what Massachusetts passed that defines what is a school resource officer it's a defined legal term it's under Massachusetts General Law chapter 71 section 37p and what it says is this is done at the discretion in a Regional School District of the district

073superintendent right here super rendant Costello in conversation with the chief in the town where the schools located and with Appropriations from the town so let me put on my finance committee hat here okay so so we'd like to see more community policing around these two schools toono won Elementary but when I look at Town Appropriations we had an extremely challenging budget season last year okay and and we got through it and we got to fund pretty much what the schools had asked for we can't do that again this year so if we elect to put funding behind school resource officer this year we're gonna have to ask the school districts to take that money out of something else in the school budget because guess what the fact that you're only putting part of those expenses

074in the school budget it doesn't mean that it just goes away or there's some magic want the towns pay for it and in these two towns it's residential real estate it's your tax bill okay now it's an initiative that's worth it our safety our children our education are extremely important in the town of Berlin and I don't think Boon's very different it's half of our budget and I support it question is I want us to use our money wisely because it's not an it's not an infinite Supply let's think about how to do this rationally let's think about is this are we putting the cart in front of the horse and saying I've got a solution for everything here why don't we think about something else that we can do and by the way when

075I when I look officer Golding and chief shner know me well Chief you and I are not not as well acquainted but officer Golding just tonight threw his body out in front you know a speed bump you know for me he doesn't just work the schools he's he he works the entire Community right and my my challenge to all of us is to broaden your thoughts about how to achieve what are the goals and how do we achieve them what are the what are the different Alternatives and and continue to study this question until we're really satisfied that we're doing the best thing for these two small towns because I don't think my opinion member of the finance committee a citizen who's very engaged in at many levels and um um and a taxpayer here

076I don't think it's the best route for us to go I want us to stay in this conversation but I don't want the conversation to stop here um and again you know I grew up I went to school without of course when I went to school we had to we had these drills where we had to we had to dive under our desk because somebody was going to drop a nuclear bomb on us but but that never happened and that's different today you know bad things do happen so let's come together and try to do the right thing with this and and um don't assume we have we have only one answer to how to tackle this um what am I forgetting I don't know I'll probably talk more if I forgot something I'm always

077talking thank job yes uh so just a few takeaways I have so with uh research containing the active Shooters it's kind of suggestive there's no data out there that uh goes you know hey Mary you know I I heard you shot up this school were you gonna shoot up any other schools well actually I was going to shoot up this school but they had a school resource officer so I was this school you know what I mean so so it's just suggestive and uh so I I recently attended a uh a active shooter uh tabletop exercise with the Beth Beth Isel deist Medical Center uh Fellowship so it's a group of uh doctors from around the world uh that uh research uh active shooter situations and disasters and critique it and say what could we

078have done better so I can't speak for valdi or any of the other shootings but what I can say is that the program Massachusetts is rolling out with the BMC disaster medicine is going to make Massachusetts the most appear law enforcement uh Oran agency in the United States to handle this so I don't know I I am reading the doj notes on evolving the other shootings but what I can tell you is that's not how Massachusetts is trained I've never been an active shooter situation myself I I would like to think I would react a certain way but until you're in the situation you have no idea but I can tell you uh Ed once this alert training is rolled out uh Texas used to be the uh top pop dog Massachusetts will will be

079the most appear law enforcement agency to handle these situations I have possession of the mic uh first of all I want to thank superintendent Costo you Chief Berlin officers and anyone else in the room school committee for doing this presentation and bringing this topic uh to the community uh it is a topic that affects the community a great deal perhaps more than most things that you are going to make decisions about uh I think officer goody if I may be so informal uh is an outstanding spokesperson for the role that you're speaking about and I only wish that more parents were here to have heard it not only the whole present ation but to hear the passion of someone who does the work every day yeah I'm on the fincom and I'm going to have

080to respond financially but I also am a a parent of adult children a 38-year public school educator 20 years of principal and a six- year member of the school committee so I have interest in schools and kids perhaps you need to do more Outreach to parents because it would really be important to not only engage them but to get their full support because they will be attending town meeting and they will have to make decisions about the town's finances and particularly about the school budget and they may hear a recommendation from a fincom let's say um that that does not support it and so they would have to think about that and what they can do or should do so thank you and um I encourage you to continue the communication and have a great

081spokesperson on hand thank you thank you cliff and I do think that I mean this is one effort that we're trying to make to bring forward as I said earlier this is a a discussion this is a conversation this is information gathering for the public who is here also the public who is at home who may be watching this as well we've reached out to this many folks many of whom are really on our boards and committees so we do want to try to reach out more to parents so we're hoping we're doing that in this way but I mean I we we're I'm in the schools all the time for coffee chats and and any other kinds of events and I'm happy to have this conversations and reach parents that way PTO meetings um

082you know right they PTO folks know that so we will continue that conversation just like anything else hopefully that what we want to put forward we will have that information available so that as many people the parents in particular that we can reach by the time we get to town meeting are informed about this so thank you for those suggestions too I am a parent actually and I've listened through all of this and we're actually new to Boyston we just moved in last year I have a high schooler and a elementary school student and you know I recall very vividly when my oldest child was eight years old when the first shooting happened in Connecticut when Adam lens and and killed all these little kids I couldn't sleep for a week I would go drop

083off my kid at school watch the windows and I I almost asked the teacher to move my kid to it was just very traumatizing and I'm listening about the finances and I'm very sympathetic but to me it's just so worthwhile if it takes you know all of this if it saves one kid's life it was worth the expense and and so to me if we can re you know you finance people because I spent 10 years in Oklahoma and one of the reasons we moved from Oklahoma because of the open care you just you can walk into a gun store and you can have 10 years worth of being in a mental institution they don't care you can buy your guns everybody has guns so if it takes a school resource officer if what DET

084turn one kid from deciding that they're going to do something really stupid to me it's worthwhile to expect and you know we can look into maybe cutting expenses or whatever we're paying enough taxes but that's that takes priority over other things that's just my dick as a parent so I'm sorry been emotional so I uh one of my previous agencies that were very well established school was also a program um and the officer was often made fun of for you know not really doing much and until I my thought was same until I Shadow him and and the uh amount of information that flowed to him that went around the principals and the administrators directly to the school res saw us officer it was something as uh you know signif as like hey like you

085you might want to take a look at uh you know little Johnny um just he's not right something he's not normal he hasn't been like this for a while just something's not right it's that encounter the police officer has with him that's different than the school that's different than uh your your your friend's it's just it's just different um and again going back to the data there's no data to capture did that stop self harm or harming other people did that stop uh someone going to drugs there's no data to to capture that but I've worked with in uh with police departs that have a very successful school resource off officer program I'm I'm a product of it I know the B very Porter again I told you I I threatened i' probably talk some

086more this's parent behind me I again I want to say my heart goes out to the parents to the students to everybody that's in these classrooms in this current environment and it isn't all about money I I want to point out that superintendent Costello mentioned let's see if I got it right uh how much money are be spending on the mental health uh Professionals of the schools right and including some services that we provide $730,000 is okay M okay that kind of spend I can get behind when I think about my role on the you know the finances of the Town my obligations to the taxpayers as well as myself because I think if you look at the history of what's G on the the incidents in the school there's very often been someone connected

087with a school of student who has a mental health issue and so when I speak about about cost it's about before we spend the money make sure we're doing it effectively and how can we we're small how can we do this in a better way that's my that's my point it's not to not spend money and I think I don't think we I think we want to keep an eye on the mental health aspect of this I think it's really critical many kids do not come forward many kids with mental health issues do not come forward and these are potentially those that end up doing something stupid because they don't feel comfortable going and talking to a counselor or they don't have access to counseling and uh or you know if you go back at

088the history of many did have mental health issues but many did not raise red flags at all just out of the blue they decided that they were going to bring a gun into school and start shooting up people so while I agree that proper mental you know I was reading an article today about it was actually in WPI a few years back they had seven kids who committed suicide on canc it was one of the worst and they had I presume resources Mental Health Resources and just couldn't figure out what was going on and so when a kid snaps and decide that you know what I'm just going to grab my dad's G and go into school today you know what's going to matter and I understand what you said about yaldi I mean it

089was just one individual who did not do what they were supposed to do but the time to response to neutralizing the threat could make the difference between 10 kids dying or 20 kids dying so or nobody dying so to me having somebody in there where my kid is coming and attending makes a whole lot of difference and it means cutting costs in other aspects of the school budget it's doing worth it that's just you know cafeteria hi um Jessica Crossland I am married to this guy so we have the same first grader I just wanted to say I appreciate hearing that the Dare program has improved since the early 90s when I went through it because it wasn't a great program back then um but I'm just curious so we just got a health teacher

090in the elementary school who presumably is addressing healthy relationships bullying peer pressure drug use um a lot of the stuff that a SRO would talk about with the younger kids so I'm curious why we are not waiting to see how this health teacher is approaching similar crossover topics and why we would use a police officer as an assembly or a special program why we feel like we need an entire let's say a day it's going to be a bit more if it's you know 20 5% of the week but let's just say a day out of the week that we have an officer in the school um that's my first question my second or comment my second comment is I come from a social work background I wholeheartedly believe in social work in schools I'm

091curious you know we have uh adjustment counselors and other people I'm curious why we didn't kind of look at the social work case management um person for this kind of role who's going to tie in all those loose ends who's going to communicate with the community members with the family with the school with the therapist whoever to wrap around services for these kids um I don't necessarily agree that a kid in trouble is going to turn to a police officer as opposed to a social worker a teacher a counselor of principal um and also I you know know we're not going to stop school shootings we're just not and having a police officer split between three schools any kid who's on the brink of you know a collapse is going to choose the day that

092their officer is not in their school to do something I mean it's it's heart-wrenching as a parent to have to think about this as our lives um but it's a fact so I I understand the respon time comment I get that you're not going to stop it but maybe it'll be faster I get why an SRO in the high school is important and reaching out to the middle school is important I don't quite see $116,000 from the school budget for the elementary school is important I also think we fought tooth and nail to get um for they're called the the teachers AIDS in the kindergarten classrooms this year and nobody half the town didn't want to pay for that we still have a roof that is leaking in the elementary school that the kids can't

093use the library on rainy days I mean there are so many things that we need to address in the elementary school that is aging and we're not keeping on top of and yet we are are pushing this additional resource in that personally I don't I don't think it it merits the need yeah so so the the school resource officer is not going to be going in and taking over what a health teachers teaching they have their own set of curriculum that they teach for so when I taught Le to the fifth graders it was alcohol and tobacco uh use and how that affects the brain specifically the developing brain it's all dependent on what their age what their age group is and what's the variables for their group um what was the other comment I

094had um yeah so and again it's it's to build it's to build the relationships for when they do come to toono that it's the the the excuse me the relationships already there it's to deal with the uh out of school things the parent uh uh the parent issues uh where you know you you going through custody B there's more uh there's more that goes on to the elementary school outside that's still related to the elementary SCH School uh during just normal business hours it's just and again just to make it clear this is just for Tanto and Bo now school not not bin water schol yeah absolutely hi for those of you that don't know me my name is Megan Grill I'm the chair of the school committee um just about the budget so the

095way the budget works for the schools is that the school committee actually sets the budget we vote on it and then it goes to town meeting so we do take input from the finance committees but the school's budget actually is set and voted on by the school committee so just because if the town of Boon decides they want to add an SRO that does not mean that the school committee is going to decide to cut fixing the roof at bees or not adding teacher or whatever else we need in the schools at the end of the day that goes to the school committee and then it goes to the town and last year we had a huge at least in Boon in Berlin as well I believe we had a huge turnout of parents and

096an overwhelming response that the towns wanted to move forward with the school's budget uh again it's uh I understand we're never going to stop the school shootings or active Shooters in general but the goal is to prevent and the more resources you have more likely you're have to prevent it I too would never have thought a kid would open up to a cop before they would open regarding certain situations uh than a teacher I've seen it I've seen it first hand um I to was a non-believer I've witnessed it it's kind of like I said it's a it's a remarkable thing a couple questions um the first is starting student privacy can you talk a little bit about how that privacy is protected and are sro's bound by fura so police are not bound by

097Hippa however in our sorry I asked a guest about fura not Hippa oh excuse uh what what was it FPA federal education right to privacy act I can answer that John in fness to you he hasn't gone through the specialized training including firefighters that have been on D detail in our school for recent situations for the pump that don't understand that so I have to go over very strictly with them the guidelines it's 80 hours of inservice training every year and a lot of that covers furer which is federally overseen information sharing things like that very strict it's not the Patriot Act it's not the Fear Factor or anything like that we are bound by confidentiality above and beyond regular law enforcement and that's part of the memorandum of understanding to meet the guidelines of

098the school district so there's a very strict rule of what we can share and not share frustrating sometimes because we could solve a lot of problems if we could share information but we do meet the standards of fura so I I do have theou in front of you oh so so on on theou uh Pages six seven and eight discuss what information can be SC uh can be shared from the school to the uh police department what can go from the polip to the school and then outside wants to but it's it's pretty strict can you speak to the training that SRO go through with regard to mental health disabilities and positive behavioral supports what once again Advanced Training the academies have put a lot into mental health awareness training right now under new post

099regulations that every officer Chief down has to go through but a school resource officer is mandated even more we're luckily District partnership uh with Massachusetts Partnerships for youth constant ongoing staff psychologist teachers administrators belong to this collaboration of teaching Network that we're allowed as school resource officers to participate I don't get any of the what do you call those cus and extra credits to get raises I just go because it's mandated um so I can answer that so it's Advanced Training and I can answer to the mental Health proud of it too but if you have another one students working with students with disabilities is no different than working with community members with disabilities we're given extra training and autism and other things that we weren't taught years ago where there was many mistakes so

100we work with children with disabilities to the level that we're allowed to fura you know all the Privacy things like that as we would with any other student with a followup on not do you abide abide by behavioral intervention plans that school staff are required to abide by yeah yes because there is and the principal can speak to several incidents where things happen and I look at staff or even parents go Sergeant goody you can do something no no that's not that's not my job you know there was a situation uh a couple months back with some third and fourth graders are running out of the girls room and one of the boys had gone in there third grade and the kids were screaming and like that one of the girls screaming ex good ex

101said who get me a staff you know this wasn't a public area where I would normally intervene as a police officer there's a whole different standard of where I can go across line and not but she reached out to me for help she trusted me she was comfortable with me from first grade on and then shared that experience but I get a staff member right away so you do abide by if there if a student has a behavioral intervention plan in place you do abide by that plan there is a plan in place which is also very private I'm well aware as um I don't want to speak to my specific family members let's just say I've sat in many I AP meetings am I saying it right and things like that all right IP

102you know personally so I'm well aware of those situations and we do abide to those stands yes and the last question I have is do would an SRO report or take direction from a police supervisor an administrator both no Falls underneath the police department that's that's sped out in the too um there are certain situations where the off uh the school resource officer must notify the principal uh before taking any action and then there's room in there if there's uh a media throughout the public uh safety etc etc um consult with the principal uh when reasonable too uh if if an arrest estimated like said so from 2020 to now there's been two juvenile arrests um neither one of them were a member of oilon or Berlin neither one of them had any affiliation with

103the hando the elementary school they isolated incidents the preferred method written out theou and just across Massachusetts the preferred method one deal with June miles is through summons um you know get core paperwork show up here but the the M will answer a lot of will answer those lot excuse me will answer a lot of those questions yeah and I would say it's very clear guidelines in thatou around that partnership between the superintendent and and the police department and with the principles as well of the school I mean there are certain things we're definitely working together on these issues in the school so I think a lot of involves a lot of conversation with one another there there's 100% room for continued education across the state um with uh with police officers how to handle

104uh mental health situations um unfortunately there's just not a lot of State funding for it um but obviously uh if we were a successful in achieving this that that would be one of the priorities there isn't a a law enforcement retired active I believe that would never not support Mental Health Training and awareness we sit back that's a topic conversation and stations going why is money going here going put it to mental health our job would be so much easier we've always welcomed cooperation and working together with mental health people and I look at the number thrown out is700 something thousand with mental health training so that's good for right here the SRO in the law enforcement Community connects it to after 2:30 in the afternoon Mary to Mondays nights and Saturdays and Sundays if

105we're not working together so the $63,000 tied into $700,000 you just reinforced your community safety and mental health training that much better because that's no good without us and we're no good without them and and we can't separate them and I'm trying to touch like three different things things first of all AAL in I read it all weekend long I'm personally embarrassed that's not Massachusetts and I could have brought a lot of slides to show success rates for SRO and preventions I didn't do that I didn't feel I needed to um to the parent behind you tragedy that we live with in law enforcement every day Connecticut but guess what your school and band School were the same size so we say Well they're big cities those little Town's the same size as Berlin and

106Boon so it can happen anywhere and back to Mary well I goody was a human speed bump well thank you for the accolades and I have emails from former students here saying what a great job I did but I can't be here all the time and what he's asking you and the parents are asking you is you need a full-time school resource officer to fill in that void we're all going to try to do the best we can but at the end of the day I can't be be here all the time to be that speed bump and to the parent back there I can give you over 5,000 interactions that I've built in 41 years with a youth that reach out to me I'm getting old marital problems other problems things like that because

107there was good communication among good police officers that were going to strive to get the best person in that position working from prek all the way through high school and continuing through college and at the end of the day that's that's what it's about and and all the training helps but we have to work together I reach out to your school psycholog all they call this we're working closer now than we ever have but I can't do it all the time and and I'm one person and this is a high school middle school I do it with our elementary people helping parents cope with things and meeting the standards and the training and all those things so at the end of the day I know it's a money thing but that money spent and collaboration

108works together wonderful if you jump on our Police website start throw on put on some Poli uh uh for this uh Vu uh I put up uh how the B police policy procedure on how to handle juveniles um uh to go with if you are transgender or just applying lgbtq um there's a there's few policies on there that are related to the school um if you have some downtime I have you read a read up on some of those now that should kind of give you a guideline of where we are Mary porter back again I just a comment officer golding what I was trying to say earlier is that you you and our Police Department do community policing RIT large across the question that we that we particular question is do you need a

109full-time person physically present in these two schools at all times do you need that and and going back to that overarching goal that the the safety education of our students I don't think it's black and white it it's not social workers versus cops it's bring it together question is how much do you need when do you need and then I want to return to the comment from the U Megan from Megan gr the chair of the school committee the the current school committee and actually the current District administration is a bit new um I've only been on Berlin's finance committee maybe five six years but there's a long tradition of negotiating around budgets it's a process it's not a it's not an onoff switch um and my understanding of that process is is it doesn't

110uh begin and end at the school committee it's a back and forth iteration and among other things the towns take a vote ahead of town meetings so we have a finance committee vote on the school budget we have a select board vote on the school budget we come together we work really hard on setting priorities and getting things done and and have to understand that there's a time frame to some of these things and you can start it now but you might be finishing it a few years down the road M here's the problem the towns can't print money we can't print money right so there's a certain Revenue we estimate the revenue we estimate the expenses it has to balance out so yeah if we had a perfect world and unlimited revenues we could

111keep talking about this we don't we have to make some really hard choices it's agonizing we work really hard at it right now the the Berlin finance committee is meeting every Wednesday night we do it from January through the end of March to try to resolve this and I'm going to say it again we had a really tough year last year the school budgets passed with enormous increases historically unknown increases in budgets not because parents showed up but because we had some special issues last year related to the pandemic related to special education and the towns stepped up and supported the schools we can't do that this year heads up we cannot so make your choices thanks there any other questions or comments around the school resource officer or concerns I think that the important

112conversation here too is hearing different perspectives on this and that's exactly why we wanted to bring you together tonight from everything from safety and finances to the role of me to mental health and all of the things you're concerned about I've been thinking here tonight um next steps that was mentioned in addition to going around to the schools to talk with parents and be available um I think that talking with the school committee talking with our administrators who in the audience tonight and the officers that is what we'll talk about after this this in informational piece tonight what are we hearing and what do we need to do you know to to answer more questions to help you make an informed decision um as you go forward in into town meeting with this or or

113we don't I think that's going to be important conversation internally as well as with the towns go ahead can you hear me now uh so my question is kind of in this Slide the one before it and it's neither for or against the SRO it's only a question because we're a uh Combined District between two towns and it doesn't seem like $63,000 a year is going to be enough to fund that officer in fact when the question was asked when the officer would start you said it wouldn't be in the budget until probably halfway through the year next year because you have to get this officer trained and up to speed so what you're effectively saying is that the residents of oil state are going to fund the training and all the supporting financing that

114goes into this officer that's going to benefit the both communities so I think there needs to be some more discussion around how and where the funding is coming from whose budget a lot of this is coming out of because I don't think that the I don't think the wrap rate that's being used there reflects the $75,000 car the gas the upkeep of that car and everything I it just seems like it's basically his pay rate Plus benefits with no other rery right and that's a part that we would incur as a as a dist as a school district right but to your point yep the rest would be absorbed through the town of Boon exactly yeah yeah it would give you another office here yeah another officer right but we're paying for 100% of the

115Fring benefits Fring on that officer the school's not burying any of that so that $100,000 $75,000 car is not reflecting that 6,000,000 Jimmy did you want to add to that mob radial health and benefits package should be split yeah based on 7525 time split then based on whatever the probation is so Chief to go up for Excuse excuse whatever your budget's going to go up for the entire year to fund this officer everything included right 80% of that or whatever the number is needs to be built back to school not just the you know $35 an hour plus the health insurance everything that's why we have these conversations and that's something the find you have to sit down and try figure yeah I was Wai to have that conversation until we meet everything but yeah

116again that that's that's what we have this platform um to get both Finance committees input p s input Community input we wer we weren a Regional School would matter yeah yeah good point thank you yeah correct so it's actually going to be off in school that office be obviously I think the logic before was well it's a municipal vehicle that's only being used in boil that's that's kind of where my logic was but I'm any other questions concerns that final thoughts okay I do want to thank you all for coming out tonight I appreciate I know it's hard to get out on a school night um and and meet for this conversation I want you to know that I think I can speak for Jon and myself how much we respect all the different perspectives

117that we've heard tonight we know that there's different perspectives out there about funding of resource officer and even the presence of one in our in our communities so whether you agree or disagree with the idea the fact that you're able to share that um the our ability to have this conversation respectfully with one another is very very important to both of us I know to all of the administrators the folks here we thank you for the input you've given us the criticism you've given us which is fine um we will take that back and have the conversations um and move and move forward with some decisions Next Step with this so if you have any other further questions John and I will both be here um for a little while and I'm sure officer ging

118will be here as well the administrator so please feel free to stay stay with us if you want to email me or email John tomorrow with some last thoughts we're happy to take your input at that time as well so thank you all for coming [Music] [Applause] tonight don't