Clark-Pleasant schools will nearly double the number of police officers patrolling its buildings each day by next semester, and is planning a national search for two new people who will lead the district’s public safety and mental health efforts.
Just one month after voters in the school district passed a referendum raising property taxes to help improve safety and security in the schools, school officials are making changes that will be apparent in the schools quickly. They plan to hire two additional police officers to work a second job as school resource officers as early as Jan. 1, superintendent Patrick Spray said.
The two new officers will work in the five elementary schools, he said, bringing the number of officers on-duty each school day to five. School resource officers are sworn police officers with special training to work in the schools.
They’re also planning a national search for a director of school safety and security and a district mental health coordinator, both of whom they hope to have hired by spring. They are finalizing job descriptions and salaries now, Spray said.
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The district is still considering building its own police force, something only one other district in the county has, but Superintendent Patrick Spray wants to take a more hybrid approach by continuing to use local off-duty officers in addition to adding full-time positions in the future, he said.
The schools will get an additional $12 million in tax dollars over the next eight years starting in June to pay for those new positions, and others, as well as equipment or programs related to school safety and security. The referendum was first introduced earlier this year following a shooting in May at a central Indiana middle school and will raise property taxes by 10 cents for every $100 of assessed value.
A committee comprised of 15 Clark-Pleasant staff members, including Spray, school administrators, counselors and teachers, are meeting regularly to discuss plans for how to use those additional funds.
Right now, one officer is assigned to the high school and one to the middle school each day while another sits in a marked car outside the high school, where students move between two buildings. Those three officers are also responsible for anything that comes up at the five elementary schools during their shift. They are tasked with protecting nine buildings covering 1.2 million square feet, about 6,700 students and 800 employees, plus visitors, delivery drivers and contractors hired to do work at the schools.
The nine off-duty officers who share those duties work in the schools in addition to their full-time job with one of three local police departments — Greenwood, Whiteland and New Whiteland.
"We want some folks — at least a portion — (who) are completely focused on school safety, security and practices,” he said.
“But we don’t anticipate that off-duty work going away completely. We’ll still have events. We’ll still have needs for them, even if the school corporation were to go down the path and have its own police department with eight or nine officers. It’s going to take years to get there if we do it right. There has to be something in between — a hybrid option on how this works — and that’s really the direction that we want to go.”
Next year, school officials expect to spend about $900,000 on the school resource officer program, including new equipment and benefits for any full-time employees, $300,000 to $400,000 to get a mental health program started, and $200,000 to $300,000 on updating the security monitoring system, Spray said.
The director of school safety and security will likely be responsible for managing all school resource officers — full-time and part-time — as well as a budget, managing crises, leading school safety meetings, developing policies, advising school officials during criminal investigations, coordinating security for all events, monitoring security cameras at all of the schools, public relations and annual security tests, according to a working draft of the job description.
This person will likely be expected to have a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice or a related field, be a graduate of the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy or meet state requirements and have at least eight years of experience as a police officer or sheriff’s deputy.
Ideally, they want to build a safety and security department, which would house offices and a command center for the large-scale monitoring system, in one of the school buildings. It could be used as a hub during any potential disasters, natural or man-made, he said.
The district mental health coordinator will likely be responsible for managing all school counselors and being a liaison between guidance counselors, social workers and mental health therapists, serving on several committees, handling public relations, researching and applying for grants, and working closely with outside therapists, special education teachers, school administrators and the new school safety and security director, according to a working draft of that job description.
Candidates for that position will be required to have an advanced degree in school psychology, social work or school counseling, and hold a district or building-level administrator’s license. They must also be a certified school safety specialist, and have knowledge of grants and experience developing and training a staff, the draft said.
Together, they would tackle issues related to stress and anxiety, depression, teen bullying and suicide and threats, the drafts said. Neither salaries have been determined yet, Spray said.
The job descriptions have been shared with school board members, counselors and administrators, local police chiefs, sheriff Doug Cox and newly elected sheriff Duane Burgess for their input.
“They support the fact that it is a much-needed position in the school corporation, and the sheriff’s department actually offered to kind of help with that process if we needed it,” Spray said.
Officials want to fill those two leadership positions before moving forward with other elements of the long-term plan so they can help develop it.
For the 2019-20 school year, Spray would like two or three full-time mental health therapists to work in the elementary schools as part of a partnership with Johnson County’s Adult and Child Health, which will cover half of those employees’ salaries and benefits, he said.
He would also like there to be full-time mental health therapists at both the middle and high school. Those two individuals will be school district employees.
“We feel like having those people be full time corporation employees at those two levels is going to give them the greatest impact with those students. Typically when kids get older, problems can get bigger. So we really want them there to be able to do risk assessments and create programs for anti-bullying and suicide prevention — all of those different components,” Spray said.
“Our guidance counselors do a really nice job, but a big component of their jobs is to offer that career and education guidance. They don’t get enough time to really delve into the mental health component of our students.”
All new positions will have to be approved by the school board.
Parts of a new and improved security monitoring system will also be in place by the start of next school year. All visitors will be required to scan their driver’s license or identification, which will result in instantaneous criminal history and sex offender registry checks.
Spray said he will make sure whichever system they go with is user-friendly.
“The last thing I want to do is have parents or volunteers coming in for lunch and standing in line for 10 minutes trying to get screened,” he said.
Other aspects of the updated security monitoring system, which will include several more cameras inside and outside of the schools, will be phased in in 2020, Spray said.
“We’re going to stick pretty close to the plan and be true to what we’ve said we want to do and explore,” Spray said. “We’re going to take some time to talk those things out and make sure we’re all on board going forward.”
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Here is a look at preliminary job descriptions for two new positions that are still in the works at Clark-Pleasant schools.
Director of school safety and security:
Bachelor’s degree and law enforcement training and experience required;
Salaried position (pay not yet determined);
250 work days a year;
Will report to director of business;
Manage all school resource officers;
Manage budget;
Lead school safety meetings;
Develop policies;
Advise school officials during criminal investigations;
Coordinate security for all events;
Monitor security cameras at all schools;
Public relations;
Annual security tests.
District mental health coordinator:
Advanced degree in school psychology, social work or school counseling, a building-level school administrator’s license and experience required;
Train and manage all school counselors;
Serve as liaison between guidance counselors, social workers and mental health therapists;
Work closely with outside therapists, special education teachers, school administrators and new school safety and security director;
Research and apply for grants;
Public relations;
Be an active member of several committees.
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