Barrington police chief: Our schools need full-time officer

School committee: School resource officer not a budget a priority

Posted 2/27/18

Barrington Police Chief John LaCross said it is time to make the school resource officer a full-time position.

Currently, SRO Josh Melo splits his time between the six public schools and regular …

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Barrington police chief: Our schools need full-time officer

School committee: School resource officer not a budget a priority

Posted

Barrington Police Chief John LaCross said it is time to make the school resource officer a full-time position.

Currently, SRO Josh Melo splits his time between the six public schools and regular shift work with the Barrington Police Department.

But during an interview on Monday morning, Chief LaCross said he plans on doing everything possible to make Officer Melo a full-time fixture in Barrington schools. 

Chief LaCross referenced the increasing occurrences of school shootings, including the Feb. 14 incident in Florida.

"We need to have more of a presence in our schools," said Chief LaCross. "I'm going to do my best to work with (Barrington Schools Superintendent) Mike Messore and the town manager (Jim Cunha) to find the resources to get a full-time school resource officer. 

"I still think there may be some people in denial that it won't happen in Rhode Island, let alone in Barrington. I would rather be prepared than to have a tragedy like this happen. I don't know if you can ever prevent it, but I would want to say we did our best."

The Barrington School Committee took a different stance at its meeting on Feb. 15. 

During a discussion about the proposed budget, school committee member John Alessandro said it was not the committee's intent to fund a full-time school resource officer position.

"We all came to the conclusion that the SRO was not one of our priorities," Mr. Alessandro said, adding that the committee would rather see funding dedicated to pay for professional development for teachers assistants. 

Mr. Alessandro then asked that the reference to funding for a full-time SRO be removed from future school budget presentations.

During a followup interview on Monday, Mr. Alessandro said he supports the work of the school resource officer and that the decision to not prioritize funding for a full-time SRO was made in response to residents who have been requesting a change in school start times. 

Mr. Alessandro said proponents of later school start times told school committee members that funding for a start time change should take priority over funding a full-time school resource officer.

"The start time people kept bringing it up every time they talked," said Mr. Alessandro. "The start time contingent would say this (later school start times) should be our priority."

Mr. Alessandro said he has been an ardent supporter of the school resource officer's work. He said he was the school committee member who first asked how much it would cost the district to fund a full-time SRO position.

"I felt it was important enough to be looked at," he said.

Currently, $72,000 of the position's salary and benefits come from the police department, while the school department pays $25,000. Chief LaCross said he believes there is money available in either the school department or municipal budgets to pay for a full-time SRO.

"When I see surpluses every year on both sides — we should really put that money to something that could prevent a future tragedy," said Chief LaCross. "It bothers me, because it falls on our responsibility (the police department) to protect people."

The police chief said there have been improvements in school security in Barrington, and he praised the work of Mr. Messore and Barrington High School Principal Joe Hurley. Still, he believes more can be done.

"There's always room for improvement," he said. 

Mr. Messore said the school district has not made any final decisions regarding the proposed budget. The school committee is scheduled to discuss the budget again at its March 1 meeting.

"I don't think this discussion is over yet," he said. "Nothing's been voted on."

The superintendent added that he believes the school safety issue is bigger than a budget decision. 

"This needs to be a town-wide discussion," Mr. Messore said. 

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