Marysville OKs school resource officer position

After five years with no official law enforcement presence in Marysville schools, a part-time role is being carved out by the Marysville Joint Unified School District and Marysville police.

An agreement is in place for a school resource officer, funded by the school district and employed by the Police Department, to work on school campuses for the remainder of the 2012 school year.

"It takes 30 to 40 percent of our time each school day to deal with school matters," said Police Chief Wally Fullerton of the need to have a law enforcement officer on site at local schools.

According to a memorandum of understanding between the district and MPD, the employee will be a retired police officer who will earn $14,000 for 538 hours of work between now and the end of the school year.

The officer will be expected to divide his time among the district's five schools in Marysville.

No one has yet been hired for the position, said Capt. Mike Wilson.

In addition to providing drug and crime awareness programs for students and parents, helping train staff and counselors on law enforcement matters and present a deterrent to crime, the officer is expected to handle most police-related calls at school campuses.

Calls from the high school and middle school sometimes involve assaults, thefts or drugs.

The city's two elementary schools, Fullerton said, pose their own unique problems.

He has the city's parking enforcement officer splitting time between Kynoch and Covillaud Elementary Schools each morning and afternoon when parents drop off and pick up their children.

Frequent disputes erupt at those sites between parents, neighbors and school authorities, usually over the parking and driving habits of parents.

"They're blocking driveways, double-parking, knocking over trash cans," Fullerton said. "They have their kids running through traffic to get into a car. They're just not as responsible as they should be."

Wilson said the attempted revival of the school resource officer role "is a bit of a test."

Eventually, he said, "we're hoping to get a full-time officer to help get to the root of problems in schools."

CONTACT Nancy Pasternack at npasternack@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4781. Find her on Facebook at /ADnpasternack or on Twitter at @ADnpasternack.