No significant progress has been made in getting a school resource officer returned to Covington High School.
Although the topic was not included on Covington City Council’s Tuesday agenda, discussion of the issue erupted when City Manager John Doane gave what he thought was going to be a brief update on progress of negotiations between the city and the Covington School System.
Doane reported that, although there have been some discussion, the issue has not been resolved.
He said school Superintendent Tom Long offered to pay half of the cost of a school resource officer for Covington High School, with the city paying the other half.
Doane said his suggestion was for the school system to put in its fiscal year budget the cost of an SRO, which would cover the cost of the SRO while he or she is on duty.
“I feel 50 percent is an insignificantly-small amount to pay given the purpose of the school resource officer,” Doane said. “And that would only solve the problem for one year.”
Concern surrounding the school resource officer program at CHS began in September, when the school board sent a letter to council asking for a replacement of the SRO as soon as possible.
CHS has not had an SRO since the school year started in August.
The most recent SRO at CHS was Covington police officer Todd Fry.
Mayor Rob Bennett, who is also a teacher at CHS, said that the school’s “first line of defense is a special education aide who stands watch at the front door each morning.”
The SRO program at CHS was canceled when the ranks of the Covington Police Department were reduced recently with the retirement of one of its officers.
When the officer retired this summer, Doane, in a cost-saving measure, decided to reduce the number of uniformed officers from 17 to 16.
As he did in September when the issue was raised, Bennett maintains he was not aware during budget negotiations this past spring that the SRO position would be cut.
“Although back at our budget time, we knew there were constraints, at no time in this building did we discuss Officer Fry being removed,” Bennett said. “I have since read e-mails between Mr. Doane and Mr. Long and apparently Mr. Long did know there was a chance that the school resource officer was going to be removed but I don’t think school board members knew it.
“To me, a table would have been turned over had we known it was going to be the school resource officer that was pulled out and not a police officer off the street,” Bennett said.
“Fifty-fifty gets us through this year,” Bennett said. “I would like to think the school board, from this point forward, would put it in its budget to request funding for a school resource officer from now until the end of time, because we’re living in the day when we can’t say, ‘it’s not going to happen here’.”
Bennett said that, since school began in August, a CHS student was suspended for a year for bringing a weapon to school.
“It’s kind of ironic that this has already happened in the first six weeks at Covington High School and I sat here and told this body, and I told the school board, that on the first week of school, there were already students who recognized that there was no school resource officer,” Bennett said.
A school resource officer is assigned to Jeter-Watson Intermediate School. The position is paid for, in part, with grant funds.
It was suggested the SRO from JWIS pull double-duty between CHS and Jeter-Watson.
School Board Vice-Chairman Rick Fuhrman said he wasn’t sure that would be allowed under the terms of the grant.
But, Fuhrman added, getting an SRO back at CHS is a top priority for the school board.
“I’d like to see this issue resolved. It’s only going to take one incident for us to all have egg on our faces,” Fuhrman said. “The whole thing is to have the presence of an officer there that would deter someone from coming in and doing something tragic.
“Our superintendent offered to meet half way, but apparently that was unacceptable,” Fuhrman added.
Discussion got heated between Fuhrman and Councilman Bill Zimmerman, who asked Furhman why the school board couldn’t use the over $400,000 that was returned to the school board from last year’s budget to pay for the position.
“We had returned $420,000 to them,” Zimmerman said. “Now, out of that $420,000, they could have certainly paid for a resource officer out of that. They’ve got the money. We’re the ones struggling to keep our heads above water and they’re the ones that got the $420,000 that we graciously sent back to them. If it was so important, why didn’t they hire a school resource officer out of that money?”
“It’s not like we had an extra $420,000 laying around,” Fuhrman said. “We got cut $1.2 million from the state and federal governments and all we asked for was level funding. We didn’t ask for any increases.”
Zimmerman responded loudly, “Well, you’ve got $420,000 back. It sounds like you can’t spend it fast enough. We don’t have to do gestapo stuff. We graciously gave that money back to you. Why can’t you come up with the money for a school resource officer yourself?”
“I don’t have a hearing problem,” Fuhrman responded. “I can hear you just fine.”
Another suggestion was the school board hire a recently-retired police officer or deputy to act as a security officer for the school.
“I know of no school system in the state that does that,” Fuhrman said.
“Maybe we can be on the cutting edge,” Zimmerman retorted.
Councilwoman Kim Warlitner asked about the possibility of reaching a compromise with the school system, where the city and school board pay half each of the cost of the CHS SRO for the remainder of the 2010-2011 school year, and, beginning with its 2011-2012 fiscal year budget, the school system will begin budgeting for the position.
Councilman Buddy Brown cautioned council members to “make sure we know what 50/50 is.”
He said that, if an on-the-street office is pulled off the street and deployed to CHS, another officer will have to work overtime to make up for the loss.
“There’s a lot more to 50/50 than we are sure of right now,” Brown said.
“I’m just hoping that there are others on city council that agree that if Mr. Long is agreeable to go 50/50 this year, I would like to think we will take the 50/50 and try and get someone in the building ASAP,” Bennett said. “I can tell you, we need a school resource officer at Covington High School, but if there’s not a majority on this board, then I can’t do anything.”
Council also heard a report from Chris Kulp, the city’s bond consultant, concerning financing through the Virginia Resources Authority for sewer system improvements.
Kulp said the $6 in financing, with $1 million considered a grant and the remaining $5 million a zero-percent loan, is a revenue-based loan, where only the revenues raised through the sewer fund will be used to pay it back.
Doane assured council members the city will not have to put up city property or facilities, such as its city hall building or fire station, as leverage to receive the loan.
He said other localities have done that recently and, due to not being able to repay its loan, have faced losing its property to creditors.
Kulp said that, under the terms of the financing agreement, free service or connection fee waives are no longer allowed.
Prepayment of the loan will not begin until the improvement project is complete.
Following Kulp’s report, council approved a bond resolution approving the financing and approved, on second reading, an ordinance authorizing the issuance of sewer bonds.
In addition, council members were updated on the activities of the Alleghany Highlands Chamber of Commerce from Executive Director Teresa Hammond.
Hammond told council that the chamber recently received a $325,000 grant from the Alleghany Foundation for marketing and tourism initiatives. The chamber, in turn, leveraged that funding to receive another $25,000 from the Virginia Tourism Corporation.
She said over 100 cyclists participated in the Gran Fondo in July. She reported the 2011 Gran Fondo will be held July 9, beginning in Covington and ending in Clifton Forge.
She said the chamber will be asking for in-kind contributions of police and rescue services again next year, but will not be asking for financial support.
Hammond said over 600 individuals visited the chamber’s booth at the PGA golf tournament, held recently at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.
She added that, using work crews from the Alleghany Regional Jail, a graffiti removal project at Humpback Bridge will begin later this month.
Other Action
In other action, council members:
• Approved by a 4-to-1 vote, with Zimmerman dissenting, to move trick-or-treating in the city of Covington to Saturday, Oct. 30, since Halloween falls on a Sunday this year.
• Approved a 15-year franchise agreement with Ntelos to provide fiberoptic, digital television to residents with the city’s Ntelos telephone service area.
• Approved, by a 3-to-2 vote, with Zimmerman and Councilwoman Stephanie Clark dissenting, second reading of an ordinance rezoning 416 W. Locust St. from R-3 to C-1 conditional for a law office only.
• Tabled indefinitely an emergency operations plan. Doane said the plan is still under review and will be brought to council when it is complete.