Carson City School Board approves school resource officers agreement

The Carson City School District Board of Trustees approved an agreement between the school district and Carson City to continue its School Resource Officers program to split the cost of three officers for approximately $$430,438 for 2020-21.

The school district’s portion is to be approximately $230,000 after the trustees’ vote on Tuesday. Carson City’s Board of Supervisors approved their portion of the agreement in the amount of $215,000 on an annual basis from the city’s general fund at its April 2 meeting.

The school resource officers serve as a partnership between the Carson City Sheriff’s Office and the school district since the program’s founding in 2015 when Sheriff Ken Furlong first wrote the grant that allowed officers to serve on school campuses, Superintendent Richard Stokes said in introducing the item Tuesday night.

The program provides school-based support from law enforcement for a smaller school district in which having its own internal police department might be less effective than calling upon municipal officers to assist for protection, community assistance and in other activities or strategies that focus on positive behavior support systems helping students.

The grant Carson City School District received in 2015 provided a three-year funding cycle and seed money to help Carson City and the school district with resources, but the grant recently expired.

Last year, the district received state funding for two additional officers, and the district pays the costs for those positions and for training on special topics such as special education and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

“Since that time (in 2015), we have come to depend on having these individuals in our buildings,” Stokes said.

He described that the funding has dried up but the program has been so successful, the district would like to continue its partnership with the city. The money would cover for the officers’ needs such as equipment, uniforms and training for their functions on district sites.

“We feel safer, it’s a great partnership and it’d be my recommendation that we approve this,” he said.

The board approved the agreement unanimously.