MORRISVILLE SCHOOLS, MAYOR ELECT WORK TO GET DISTRICT OFFICER By GEMA MARIA DUARTE Staff writerBucks County Courier Times Morrisville Councilman Dave Rivella will propose Monday that the council strongly consider hiring a school resource officer for borough schools with help from grants and the Morrisville School District. Rivella, who is mayor-elect, said he hopes the borough council will be “compelled to take this positive step forward.”“Law enforcement agencies can open lines of communication between police officers and students by placing a police officer in the school,” said Rivella. “Many schools throughout the country are turning to school resource officers as a preventative measure against school violence.” If the council agrees, the district will then apply for a grant, which would put $60,000 toward the cost of the officer for the first year. But time is of the essence. The grant application deadline is Nov. 22. So Rivella is making sure that council members receive all the information they need to decide. Delaying the issue isn’t an option, he said, since the next council meeting is in December. “Because the school resource officer will be from the Morrisville Police Department, the borough must be in agreement for the grant process to move forward,” Rivella said. He didnt provide more financial information beyond the fact that Darletta Berry Johnson, the districts 21st Century Community Learning Centers representative, managed to find a grant that would cover $60,000 a year. After that the school district can apply again. (The district) believes renewing the grant would be in order as there would then be supporting information showing that it works and the benefits of continuing to have the SRO, Rivella said. How much the borough and district would have to pitch in was not known Friday. Its hard to say how much the borough would have to pitch in because I dont know if a current officer would be doing the job or a new hire would be doing this job. Newly hired officers make a lot lower salary for the first couple of years, so depending on which officer becomes the SRO the grant could cover it or be short. The SRO is a Morrisville police officer so it will cost whatever a police officer makes. More than patrol the schools, the sworn officer would serve as a counselor to students and liaison between the district and the community. Earlier this week, Rivella met with a school district group that included Superintendent Bill Ferrara and school board President Damon Miller. They discussed the possibility of the borough and the district hiring a school resource officer, Rivella said. I believe this position would be helpful in creating preventative programs and intervention in our schools and be beneficial to the Morrisville community, Miller said.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 23:22:11 +0000
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