SHELBURN, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Dr. Mark Baker, Superintendent of Northeast School Corporation (NESC) said before students can learn, you’ve got to meet some basic needs. Making breakfast, lunch, and textbooks free to all students was part of NESC’s way of meeting those needs.
The other need Baker mentioned was school safety, “if they (students) don’t feel safe at school, it’s also harder for them to learn.”
Making kids feel safe at school, Baker said that’s part of NESC’s school safety policy.
“We started with the cameras, then we went to changing the entrances to our buildings and all the locks and all those things, and this is just the next step in making our students and staff and our families feel safer while they’re at school,” Baker said.
Last spring, Northeast Schoo Corporation worked with the Shelburn Police Department to have School Resource Officers (SRO) share time at the schools.
“Build connections with the students, build a rapport with staff. Provide resources. So, it’s been a really good thing. I think we’ve had a lot of positive feedback,” Matthew Price said, who worked as an SRO at NESC during that time.
That time was a trial period, for what is now their own police department.
“We decide to go with the department, it seems to be the new trend, right now for schools that have had SROs for a lot longer,” Baker said. “And we just felt that if we were able to have our own department, we’d have our own people, we’d have the consistency that we think we need so that our kids see people in the school and then also carry out onto the streets is what we hope.”
Matthew Price who served as an SRO last year is the new police chief at NESC. He said they are currently in the process of hiring two more officers to have an officer in each building, each day. Something Michelle LeMay, a grandparent of Northeast students thinks is necessary.
“In this day in age, it is. To have police officers at the school, they make a familiar face, they make the children more comfortable, and they have somebody to go to. They may not have anybody to go to at home,” LeMay said.
Price said officers at NESC will be expected to be tier-one graduates of the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy and will complete the Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy within one year of employment.
Baker and Price said the officers will be a part of the school community.
“Not only are they there if there’s an issue, but they’re also doing a lot of education,” Baker said. “So, they’re doing some counseling, they’re bringing some outside agencies into the building to help deal with some issues that our teens and our youngsters are facing, so it helps there as well.”
Price says NESC is making the right call.
“Unfortunately, in our culture, nowadays, we’re better to be prepared and not need it than need it and not be prepared,” Price said.
Price and Baker agree that consistency is key. Officers that work for the corporation’s police department will get to know their students and know their buildings.
To learn more about the open positions for SRO officers at NESC, visit the corporation’s website. Price said the positions will start at $51,000 plus benefits. According to the job positing the deadline to apply is July 19 by 3:00 PM.
