WISCASSET

Establishing a policy for the Wiscasset’s new School Resource Officer is one of the agenda items to be considered by the Wiscasset School Committee at tonight’s special meeting.

“As is the case with many school policies, we don’t try to reinvent the wheel,” said Superintendent Lyford Beverage, adding that the proposed policy is a summary of policies from the Windham, Westbrook and Sanford school systems for a resource officer position.

“I tried to adopt from these the issues that were relevant to our school committee and our schools in clear terms,” said Beverage.

According to the proposed policy, the aim of assigning a School Resource Officer is to enhance “the educational environment” of the schools and “preserve the peacefulness … and to maintain an atmosphere where teachers and students feel safe to engage in the teaching/learning process.”

At Wiscasset’s June Town Meeting, the creation of an SRO position drew more than a half hour debate, and the warrant article for the Police Department budget failed twice to pass — first for the selectmen’s recommended amount of $376,374, which included the position, and then for the budget committee’s recommended amount of $336,776, which did not fund the position.

A motion was then made to vote again on the selectmen’s recommended amount, and the article passed by 15 votes, with 91 in favor and 76 opposed.

Residents who argued in favor of creating the position, including former Board of Selectmen chairperson Ed Polewarczyk, said that increasing drug use at high and middle schools was the primary reason they wanted an officer in the schools.

Those who spoke against the position noted the increased tax burden residents face, owing primarily to Wiscasset’s withdrawal from Regional School Unit 12, and also questioned whether the schools’s needs couldn’t better be met by a guidance or drug counselor.

Perry Hatch, who has been on the Wiscasset Police Department full-time for two years, was nominated to the School Resource Officer position by Wiscasset Police Chief Troy Cline. Hatch has undergone specialized training for the position, said Beverage.

“The title says it all, the officer is a resource, not only to the schools but to the students,” said Beverage. “The schools and the community felt that this was another tool that would provide an opportunity for guidance and advice and access to assistance.”

The Wiscasset School Committee adopted the policies of Regional School Unit 12 after withdrawing from that unit, effective July 1. The RSU did not have a SRO position, and so the Wiscasset committee has crafted a new policy.

“A school system relies on policy much more than anyone ever knows,” said Beverage. “We elected to adopt the operating policies from RSU 12 … it was a blanket adoption, and we now reviewing them to make them specific to our school system.”

The Wiscasset School Committee will have a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. tonight in the Wiscasset High School library, located at 272 Gardiner Road. The policy review will follow a closed executive session.

rgargiulo@timesrecord.com

The Times Record Sustaining Sponsor
We believe a community must be informed to thrive. bowdoin.edu