WHITEWATER — The Whitewater Common Council will consider Tuesday extending its school resource officer agreement with the local school district for 30 days.
The current agreement is set to expire on June 30.
The council meets at 6 p.m. at the Whitewater Municipal Building, 312 W. Whitewater St., in Whitewater.
School board members agreed to extend the agreement another 30 days when it met on June 5. The common council had directed city staff to “reaffirm” the council’s desire to have a 120-day extension considered by the school board and to send a letter explaining the council’s decision, with a redlined agreement.
Whitewater Police Chief Dan Meyer has said publicly that the department’s top priority is ensuring student safety. He also wrote in a memo to the common council in May that it was the best interest of all parties and for student safety for the agreement to continue.
“We believe that having an officer in the schools is the best way to do that,” Meyer said. “We want to work collectively and transparently to address any concerns so we can continue our longstanding relationship with the Whitewater Unified School District.”
The school board met in closed session on June 5 to discuss the agreement. The agenda stated that the board intended “specifically, to discuss and take action on the proposals related to school resource officer services and the terms of contracting for such services.”
The school district and the city have been at odds since in recent months as negotiations have broken down over the school resource officer agreement.
Outgoing Superintendent Caroline Pate-Hefty and the school board have taken exception to the number absences of the current resource officer, which has totaled 25 full days.
Meyer reported that eight of those days were for training. Of the remainder, 12 were for sick leave, bereavement or vacation. There were also five for covering patrol staffing and helping with special assignments like search warrants and tracking operations. Pate-Hefty and the board were also concerned about staff needing to contact dispatch, instead of the officer directly. When the officer would be on school grounds, Meyer said that contacting the officer directly would be the “most ideal” option.
Meyer has reported that the goal, with the city’s recently approved public safety referendum, is to add a second school resource officer, given that the Whitewater Police Department is the agency providing the service. It has also offered the payment structure to be done on a per diem basis.
A draft of the June 5 minutes were sent to the Daily Union on Monday. Those went into more detail, specifically indicating that the board deliberated on more than the Whitewater Police Department in regard to the school resource officer. According to the draft minutes, the board met to “discuss and take action on proposals related to school resource officer services and terms of contracting for those services.” The board met with Brian Dorow, Sean O’Neal and Tom Czarnecki, all representatives of Secure Resources Unlimited during the school resource officer discussion.
According to its website, Secure Resources Unlimited is an emergency management consulting service based in Waukesha, dedicated to “keeping you safe and mitigating risk-through preparation, prevention, protection and recovery services.”
“Our exceptional team has decades of experience throughout the United States in law enforcement at the highest national, state and local levels,” the Secure Resources Unlimited website states.
According to the school district, no decision was made regarding the school resource officer other than to extend the agreement at that board meeting.
Also on Tuesday, the council is scheduled to select representatives to meet with school board representatives, legal counsel, new School Superintendent Samuel Karns and Meyer on improving and possibly renewing the school resource officer contract.
