The Examiner U-46 News FeedU-46 set to renew pacts for school police officers By Seth Hancock
The Board of Education in School District U-46 is set to vote on school resource officer (SRO) contracts as well as a temporary facility report at its upcoming meeting on Monday, Nov. 18. The items were presented on Nov. 4.
SROs are used at secondary schools with 14 total officers from four police departments being used. The total cost of the four contracts, including overtime and event security costs, will rise by 2.3 percent.
“This amount is the amount that we were spending back in 2006-2007 when our overtime costs for police officers were a bit out of control,” said John Heiderscheidt, director of school safety and culture.
The contracts include a 2.5 percent increase in annual salaries from $956,018 to $979,703, an increase of $23,685. Overtime and event security costs will remain the same at $89,500.
From Elgin, the total salary cost is $505,242 for seven officers with a salary of $72,177. Elgin’s hourly overtime rate is $69.
Streamwood’s total salary cost is $209,763 for three officers with a salary of $69,921. It’s overtime hourly rate is $50.43.
In Bartlett, two officers will have a salary of $69,919 for a total of $139,838 with an hourly overtime rate of $71.43. Two officers from South Elgin will have a salary of $62,430 for a total of $124,860 and an hourly overtime rate of $63.62.
A recent change to Illinois law, signed in 2018 by former Gov. Bruce Rauner, requires SROs to receive specific training. Sue Kerr, the board’s president, asked if SROs in U-46 will be in compliance?
Heiderscheidt said the police departments are responsible for getting that training. He said the specifics of that training have not yet been made by the state, but officers in U-46 are already trained.
“I believe that we’re going to find that the training that we experience is better than what they’re going to put on paper,” Heiderscheidt said.
The temporary facility report is in regards to a mobile classroom to be used at Lincoln Elementary School in Hoffman Estates. The double unit is expected to house 60 students.
“We’re having to open up a mobile at Lincoln,” said Jeff King, deputy superintendent of operations. “We’ve added two classrooms to that school since school started in the fall. We’re out of space, the mobile is already on site, it’s been there since prior to the last boundary change, we’ve never moved it and we do need approval from you… so we can move that classroom into the mobile.”
On the checklist with 35 compliance issues regarding the specific mobile to be used, seven issues were marked as either not in compliance or the information was not available. Board member John Devereux asked if there was “any cause for concern?”
“No, if there’s anything that’s urgent obviously it’ll be taken care of before we populate it with students,” King said.
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