School safety a priority for SJSD despite missing target number of officers

Aug. 10—Due to staffing issues, the St. Joseph School District will only have six school resource officers this school year. However, getting by without a full staff of officers is nothing new for the district.

"That is what we've been dealing with for the past few years," said Shannon Nolte, director of nonacademic student services. "Just like in a lot of businesses, there's staffing shortages. We've actually had six for the last couple of years."

Capt. Jeff Wilson with the St. Joseph Police Department said the target for school resource officers is nine and, unfortunately, they haven't reached it.

"We got really close a couple of years ago. I think we were up to eight in the schools, but over the last couple of years we've had a lot of retirements and we've had some resignations," Wilson said. "It's no secret that across the country it's difficult to fill the void in police departments right now."

Wilson said the police department has worked to fill the open positions.

"We have a sergeant that also floats around and helps out with the schools," Wilson said. "He helps supplement when we don't have the numbers that we would like to have but operationally."

Nolte said even with fewer officers in schools, the district is not concerned.

"Actually having them here, even if we're a few short of what the goal was initially, they're very valuable to have here," Nolte said. "They build a lot of relationships with students. They provide a sense of safety for students and parents. Again, if we're a little bit short-staffed on what we originally wanted, they still have a great presence here."

Wilson said the primary focus of the school resource officers is the safety of students.

"It's also to enrich the children through this program," Wilson said. "Even though we're working with six of them (officers) right now, we have been able to do that. We have been able to continue to have the kids camps, junior academies, things along those lines that we've had for a number of years."

The police department has offered additional training in response to the rise of school shootings nationwide.

"We have consistently throughout the last few years offered training to school personnel on an annual basis, in some respects semiannual, as well as our officers are all trained in responding to that type of incident," Wilson said. "It's unfortunate that we do have to prepare for this, but many years ago we realized that we do have to be prepared for a situation just as this, so that is a priority to us."

Nolte said the district has implemented different strategies to help with school safety.

"We're going to change the training up a little bit to make it more scenario-based and maybe even have some more live situations that we explore and look at so that our staff will be ready to handle situations as they come up," Nolte said.

Nolte said the school district does walk-throughs of each building ahead of the academic year, checking alarms, exit lights and other safety features.

Wilson said the department has added additional private security personnel working at schools to assist the resource officers.

Nolte said safety is the No. 1 priority and always has been.

"I think we feel pretty good about that," Nolte said. "We're willing to do whatever it is we can do to make things better, but we do feel like we're in a good position. We have worked over the last four or five years of putting entrances, secure entrances in every building."

This summer, the district finished installing secure entrances at the remaining three schools.

"If you go into a high school, you may notice the entrance looks a little different, but it is designed for safety and security like we have in all the other buildings and right now. We're up to date."