By David Fleet
Staff Writer
Goodrich- On Monday night the school board of trustees voted 6-0 to partner with Atlas Township for a student resource officer. Trustee Chip Shultz was absent from the meeting with notice.
At a cost of about $100,000 the SRO from the Genesee County Sheriff Office will be funded with 30 percent from the Atlas Township Police millage and 70 percent from the school district. The term of the contract will include the remainder of the 2019 school year and conclude in June 2020. The officer will be in the school district during class hours during the 180 days of session. When not in the district, the SRO will be in the township joining the current four deputies for extra help. Over the next few weeks school officials will interview perspective candidates for the SRO.
Ryan Relken, district superintendent said hopes to have the SRO on duty by the end of March.
“We will have a very specific job description for the officer,” said Relken. “Our goal here is to prevent crimes and problems before they happen.
We look for proactive measures for our students, safety assignments such as identifying the strength and weakness within the district buildings will be part of the SRO’s tasks.

From locks on school doors to cameras on the buses, to lights in the parking lot to traffic controls during the school day, security is priority. This officer will be part of a leadership team and provide an active role within the community. Such an assignment could save a life, working top to bottom with not only students but also the parents, administrators and teachers.”
While the duties of the SRO will be deliberated, funding was at issue during the negotiations between the district, Atlas Township and Genesee County Sheriff Office.
David Cramer, school board secretary and district finance committee chair said two options were deliberated.
“I felt a 60-40 (percent) was a fair split of costs,” said Cramer. “I was very disappointed they did not see it that way. Consider the other districts within Genesee County, such as Clio and Fenton were 60-40. The extra patrol, will add value to the community for all the residents not just the district.”
The Brandon School District, the Oakland County Sheriff Department and Brandon Township currently use an SRO with a 50-50 percent split.
While the final cost will hinge on the SRO selected and their experience, Cramer said the district will dip into their fund balance for the extra money.
“I do believe the SRO is a much needed additional service, however it comes with a cost,” he said. “I would support a .4 mill township wide for the SRO—that would be enough to support an officer in the schools. That’s about $40 per year for a $200,000 home.”
According to the June 30, 2018 fiscal year ending audit, the district has $2,295,498 or 11.7 percent of expenditures in fund balance.
Prior to the Monday night vote, Tere Onica, Atlas Township Supervisor reported on Feb. 18 to the township board of trustees meeting the 30-70 percent split was fair given the time the deputy would serve in the school and township.
Onica also reported on the number of police calls over the past four months: Oct. 251; Nov. 271; Dec. 232 and Jan. (2019) 372.

Of those calls about 55 or 5 percent went to the school.

“That’s a total of 1,026 calls,” said Onica, during the board of trustees meeting. “They have a high volume of calls, sometimes more than others. There is a benefit to the township have a deputy on (duty). If we have someone on school he can handle those calls that could take away from our patrols. Generally they are not quick calls (either) they could be hours long, depending on the situation.”
Detective Sergeant George Lieber of the GCSO Atlas Township responded to the police activity at the school.
“It’s variable what the calls at the school can be—it can be hours,” said Lieber who attended the board of trustees meeting. “Any time there is a call that’s one kid threatening another we have to do a complete follow up. We meet with the parent, we go to the home we make sure the kid does not have access to any weapon. It takes half a day.”
Lieber added there are a lot of calls at the middle school as well.
“There reason we have so much activity at the school is that’s our big population pool during the day,” he said. “It’s like having four large factories, or a big shopping center (in the township). I think that’s why that’s such a large number of calls. The rest of the population is out (of the township) during the day then the remainder of the township is quieter.”
“The resource officer does many tasks during the day,” he said. “There’s still discipline that’s handled within the school. What you see when you add a resource officer is crime go down in a school. You have better crime prevention and better education and relation with law enforcement with the students. Their problems will decrease just by the proxy of that person being in the environment and working with the students on a regular basis being visible.”