Elected officials say the BOE must pay the full $500,000 to fund the seven police officers at the district’s schools next year.
As Evesham Township begins to outline next year’s municipal budget, mayor and council say the township will no longer fund the School Resource Officer program that stations police officers throughout schools in the Evesham Township School District.
If the program continues for the 2017–2018 school year, the township’s elected officials say the school district will be responsible for the full $500,000 required to pay for the seven, full-time officers at each of the district’s school buildings.
While the township does not pay any of the nearly $280,000 required for the two Evesham officers stationed at Cherokee High School, it does pay the entire cost of the $500,000 required for the seven officers in the township’s K-8 district.
Although Evesham’s chief of police and township manager reached out to the district superintendent and Evesham’s Board of Education last month about paying a portion of the SRO program moving forward, Mayor Randy Brown made it clear at this week’s council meeting the township will not fund any portion of the program next year.
“I think the amount of officers we have is outstanding and it shouldn’t change, not one aspect of it, but it is now the responsibility of the school district,” Brown said.
In response to council’s decision, Superintendent John Scavelli Jr. said it would be difficult to speculate on the BOE’s reaction to immediately paying the full cost of the SRO program next year.
After the chief of police and township manager’s outreach last month, Scavelli said he had planned to offer a proposal where the board would contribute $125,000, or 25 percent, toward the SRO program for the 2017–2018 school year, potentially allowing the board to phase the cost of the entire program into the budget during the next four years.
Scavelli said he would follow-up with the BOE regarding funds for the entire program once he receives a letter from the township.
Council’s decision marks the latest change in the scope and cost of the SRO program since it was first approved in August 2015 as a shared services agreement between the township and school district to share four, part-time police officers.
In late 2015, mostly due to concerns stemming from an incident at Van Zant Elementary School where a juvenile with a replica gun caused a school lockdown, the district and township agreed to revise the SRO program to place an officer at every school for the remainder of the 2015–2016 school year.
Although the school district and township then agreed to continue and share costs of the program for the 2016–2017 school year, the township later decided to bear the full cost of the program for that year to disassociate the issue from the Board of Education’s then ongoing discussions of whether to close Evans Elementary School.
At the time, the district floated the idea of a referendum to pay for the expanded SRO coverage.
“The governing body at the time decided that it had made a commitment and it wasn’t going to turn its back, so it gave the school district some time to work through some of the issues,” township manager Tom Czerniecki said.
Now that more than a full year has passed since the board’s decision to close Evans, township officials decided it was time to hand responsibility for the SRO program to the school district.
Councilmember Ken D’Andrea said while neither council nor the BOE could put a dollar amount on the value of a child’s safety, he wasn’t aware of any of Evesham’s peer towns that pay for any of the police officers in their school districts.
“I think we’re at the point in time to say to our good friends at the school district — the program is yours and we need to hand it off to you,” D’Andrea said.
Before council’s decision regarding the SRO program, the BOE had already dedicated its April 27 meeting to discussing the 2017–2018 budget.
Brown suggested the BOE resolve the issue then.
“There’s plenty of room in their budget. Everyone knows there’s plenty of room in their budget,” Brown said.
