Clark, Pleasant Township voters say yes to school safety referendum

Residents in the Clark-Pleasant school district voted yes to a referendum that is expected to strengthen security and improve mental health in the schools, but will raise property taxes to do it.

The referendum, which 57 percent of voters approved of, will increase property taxes in the district by 10 cents for every $100 of assessed value for eight years. For the owner of a $123,500 home, which is the median home value in the school district, the increase would cost them about $48 more in property taxes each year.

Altogether, it will raise about $12 million over eight years for the school district to either build its own police force or split the cost of full-time officers with local police departments — which one still isn’t clear — hire mental health counselors and implement a new and improved security monitoring system.

“We pledge that these funds will be utilized strictly for safety and security programs that put more school resource officers in our schools to build relationships and provide additional layers of mental health programs for our families. We will work to make the Clark-Pleasant Community Schools a model program for student safety,” Superintendent Patrick Spray said in a statement Tuesday night.

The referendum will bring in about $1.5 million a year to the district. About $900,000 of that will be spent on police officers and equipment, Spray has said.

Ideally, one full-time police officer would be in every school building. Right now, three part-time, off-duty officers share that responsibility.

“We will continue to work with local law enforcement to produce some sort of school resource officer program. What we’d like to do is have a partnership if they’re able to provide part of those resources,” Spray said.

It may very well be a hybrid — part partnership with local police departments and part private police force, he said.

Although Clark-Pleasant has guidance counselors, social workers and educational psychologists, none of them are trained to handle mental health issues extensively — most focus on academics and helping families find resources outside the school.

In the first year, the district will spend $300,000 to $400,000 on a mental health program, Spray said. They plan to hire two trained, licensed therapists or crisis counselors who would be able to diagnose students and work with them on long-term solutions to their problems that may not be academic. The percent of funds the district would put towards that program will increase each year, he said.

Clark-Pleasant wants a more sophisticated monitoring program as well, Spray said. The district will put about $200,000 to $300,000 a year towards a high-tech security system that will be monitored around the clock at a centralized location.

School board members have said that’s something they would have moved forward with whether the referendum passed or not.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Clark-Pleasant Public Question” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Voters in Clark and Pleasant Townships voted on the following referendum:

For the eight (8) calendar years immediately following the holding of the referendum, shall the Clark-Pleasant Community School Corporation impose a property tax rate that does not exceed ten cents ($.10) on each one hundred dollars ($100) of assessed valuation and that is in addition to all other property taxes imposed by the school corporation for the purpose of funding school safety initiatives, programs and student mental health support?

NO;43%

YES;57%

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