Berkeley Middle Parents Lobby for Resource Officer

By Amber Lester Kennedy Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Berkeley Middle School parents are asking the city of Williamsburg to provide a resource officer for the school – the only secondary school in the Williamsburg-James City County School Division without one.

Parent-Teacher Association President Laura Tripp raised the issue at City Council’s Oct. 14 meeting, where she read a resolution formally adopted by the PTA that asked for a resource officer. Mayor Clyde Haulman assured her the city would investigate further.

Although James City County and Williamsburg split the costs for the shared school division, school resource officers are provided by the individual localities. James City County employs five resource officers (four full-time and one part-time) in the county schools, but the city does not have a full-time officer assigned to Berkeley Middle School, the only secondary school within the city boundaries.

“It’s an equity issue,” Tripp said in a phone interview. “We need to be providing a safe, nurturing environment, so that teachers can focus on teaching and kids can be ready to learn.”

City Manager Jack Tuttle also said it’s an equity issue, but he was referring to the balance of city students to county students. City residents make up less than 9 percent of the school system’s student body, he said. “Resource officers aren’t funded in the school budget. The decision is made by the jurisdiction as to what they need for public safety services,” he said. “Therefore, it’s not a simple issue. It has some complexity to it.”

The city has 37 officers, one who serves effectively as a part-time school resource officer, in addition to his duties as crime prevention officer, Tuttle said. In the event a police presence is needed, the police can respond to the school within two to three minutes. “We feel we already have a very responsive situation,” he said, adding the school administration has not requested a dedicated school resource officer.

Berkeley did have a school resource officer more than a decade ago, but Tuttle said the officer was “underutilized considerably.” “If you have the luxury of having the staffing that allows you to do it, that’s fine,” he said. “Every police officer is a valuable resource; you have to see if you’re using your people to your best advantage. We don’t have that luxury.”

Major Brad Rinehimer, of the James City County Police, served as a school resource officer at Berkeley for one year in 1999. He said there has “always been talk” about getting a resource officer back in the school; the county once used grant money to provide school resource officers to Berkeley and James Blair Middle School. When the money ran out, decisions had to be made about whether to keep the officers in the schools, return the officers to patrol or eliminate the positions. “Especially in recent years, [funding has] been a lot more difficult,” Rinehimer said.

Tuttle said the city will likely be discussing the issue as it prepares its budget for next year. The salary plus benefits for a police officer would be about $60,000 to $70,000, Tuttle said. His hope is that a resource officer would act not only as a security presence, but be integrated into the academic program and have interaction with students. If the city decides to hire an officer, he said it would not be during the present school year.

Tripp agrees the school resource officer should have a large role in the children’s lives, beyond providing security. “It can also be a very good resource for kids with problems who feel like they can’t talk to anyone else,” she said.

James City County’s middle school resource officers present the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program in their schools. The program consists of a 13-session middle school violence prevention curriculum designed to teach students how to resist gang pressure and encourage positive relationships among the community, parents, schools and law enforcement. Lesson topics include setting realistic goals; decision-making practice; verbal vs. nonverbal communication; and empathy for others.

Although Tripp said parents wanted a resource officer for equity, she added parents have some concerns about the amount of behavior offenses at the school. Offenses are reported to the state for the school report cards, posted here. In the 2010-11 school year, Berkeley had 286 reported offenses, ranging from weapons offenses to property offenses. The school, which had a population of 886 students last year, had more offenses in 2008-09, when 317 offenses were reported. The majority of offenses reported were for disorderly or disruptive conduct. Toano Middle School had 139 offenses in 2010-11, down from 351 in 2009-10; Hornsby Middle School, in its first year, reported 91 offenses.