More police presence could be in the future for Cape Henlopen School District.
Cape Henlopen school board is considering adding a second school resource officer and four constables to bolster the one SRO that covers nine schools.
“One SRO to cover nine schools is really challenging,” said Ed Waples, supervisor of human resources.
The price tag for the five positions would be about $265,000 a year. An SRO is a Delaware State Police officer and costs the district $80,000. A constable has no powers to arrest, unlike an SRO, and the cost is about $42,000 each. A constable would be a district employee, but if the position is filled by a retired police officer, the district would not have to pay healthcare costs or pension costs, Waples said.
Four constables, Waples said, would provide more coverage during after-school events. In particular, the high school has sports, twilight classes, clubs and community activities after the school day. Constables could provide security by working split shifts to cover the evening hours, he said.
“We have scrimmages, but we need more support at scrimmages,” Waples said.
The district's one SRO spends the majority of time dealing with incidents at the Intensive Learning Center, which is at Sussex Consortium, he said. The ILC serves Cape Henlopen students with severe learning, emotional or behavior problems.
Board member Alison Myers said she supports adding the position as a preventative measure.
“One SRO for the district is not enough,” she said. “It's not effective. It's always reactive and not proactive.”
The district presentation noted there would be opportunity for SROs or constables to serve as informal counselors to build relationships with students and reinforce positive behavior.
Myers said a fight during a pre-season football scrimmage was a wake-up call that more security is needed. “We need someone there to be vigilant,” she said.
However, Myers said, the move to hire another SRO and four constables is not a knee-jerk reaction to the scrimmage fight, which prompted felony riot charges against five adults and two teens two weeks after the fight.
“This was in line before the fight,” she said. “But the scrimmage reinforced the need for more security patroling and taking the pulse of the situation.”
Board President Andy Lewis said Cape Henlopen School District has a lot of sporting activities and theater events with limited administrators to cover them.
“The fight did bring it up more,” he said, referring to the need for more security.
He said the district pays for four to six state police officers to attend sporting events such as football games or scrimmages. Delaware State Police charges $68 an hour for additional security at events. A two-hour football game with six hired officers would cost about $800 a game.
Still, Lewis said he is not sure about spending a quarter of a million dollars for more staff.
“I understand about the safety, but I'm concerned. I have a balanced budget for next year and don't have an extra $250,000,” Lewis said.
Because the SRO spends so much time at the Sussex Consortium ILC, Lewis asked whether the position could be paid out of the consortium budget. Business director Oliver Gumbs said the position could be a tuition expense and paid through the district's tuition tax.
The school board expects to discuss the matter at a future meeting.
Past history
In the past, the school resource officer has been controversial for Cape Henlopen School District.
Board members unanimously voted to hire a school resource officer in 2013 after eliminating the position in 2010.
District officials vacated the position after two publicized lawsuits. In a high-profile lawsuit that was settled minutes before going before a federal judge in Wilmington, former Cape High student Roger Dane Wooleyhan sued the district after a teacher charged him in 2008 with offensive touching. The teacher said Wooleyhan had elbowed her; he denied it and sued because the school denied him due process by not allowing him to provide his side of the story. In 2011, Wooleyhan settled with the district for an undisclosed amount of money.
The same SRO was involved in an incident at Shields Elementary in which a boy was questioned in connection with an incident in which another boy had stolen lunch money from a third boy. The SRO explained to the child that he was trying to get the other boy to confess to stealing lunch money, but the interrogation frightened the boy and made him cry. His mother sued and later settled with the district for an undisclosed amount of money.