KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – On Tuesday the Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to support a memorandum of understanding with the Kelseyville Unified School District for a school resource officer.
The agreement would have both the county and the district share the costs to have a deputy actively working with students and staff in the district.
The sheriff's office and the school district are each to contribute $51,500 – for a total of $103,000 annually – to cover the program, according to the proposed agreement.
Having law enforcement presence on campuses has become more of a concern since the Dec. 14 school shooting in Newtown, Conn., where 20 students and six staff and faculty members were killed by a lone gunman.
For Kelseyville, which last Friday had a deadly shooting at a Main Street gas station – located across from Kelseyville High School – increasing community safety also has become a particular concern.
Sheriff's Deputy Cynthia Radoumis has been tapped for the new position.
The Kelseyville Unified Board of Trustees – which heard a presentation from the Lake County Sheriff's Office last week on the program proposal – will hold a special meeting on Wednesday evening to consider final approval of the agreement.
That meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the district office, 4410 Konocti Road.
Undersheriff Pat Turturici and Capt. Chris Macedo appeared before the Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning for the proposal discussion.
Supervisor Rob Brown, whose district includes Kelseyville, thanked Macedo for “making it happen” when it came to the school resource officer proposal.
Board Chair Jeff Smith said it's “amazing” what a school resource office can do for a community, noting that when his children were in school there had been such an active officer working, and that person helped quickly locate Smith's daughter when she didn't come home one night.
Supervisor Anthony Farrington asked about what was to be done for other districts.
Turturici said the sheriff's office is almost at full staff and so there is the possibility of eventually providing such positions to other districts.
Macedo said the sheriff's office has had discussions with Lake County Superintendent of Schools Wally Holbrook, and would like to have school resource officers in every district.
Right now, the sheriff's office is looking at available funding, but even if no funding materializes, Macedo said the agency would make the commitment to put the officers in local schools.
“We've wanted to do this well before the Connecticut incident,” Macedo said, explaining the staff previously hadn't been available.
He said having the officers on campuses will help put peoples' fears at ease.
Turturici said a school resource officer program has been his goal since he came to Lake County in 2011, as he's seen it work elsewhere.
Smith said it's a matter of spending a little money now or a lot later.
Supervisor Jim Comstock said there previously had been such a program in the Middletown Unified School District and it worked well. He said he totally supported it.
Brown said the goal was to start with getting the program established in one school district and work from there.
The board approved the memorandum of understanding 5-0.
In a separate discussion between the board and sheriff's staff on Tuesday, Brown reported that the Clearlake Police Department, which has a school resource officer assigned to the Konocti Unified School District, has made 72 arrests on campus since the start of the year.
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