Edon council discusses resource officer

“We were able to represent that really, we expect to pay 100% of the freight on what we’re involved with,” Stevens said at a recent board meeting, adding the school has looked at contract lengths of nine and 10 months.

Jason Randall, a Bryan City School District SRO, was at both the last school board meeting and Monday’s council meeting, where he asked about an update.

Councilman Dan Ankney said school officials were supposed to be getting contract information to council.

Other councilmen still had some questions on residents’ thoughts and who would be paying for it down the line.

“My biggest thing was in five years what will happen if we have to put it on levy?” Councilman Brian Shaffer said.

Ankney said he spoke to a few residents about the idea.

“The people I talked to said they were OK with having one as long as the town didn’t have to pay for it,” he said. “We’re losing money as we go.”

When asked, Randall said Bryan has two SROs that are hired through the school and one assigned from the Bryan Police Department as staffing allows.

“I’m a reserve officer through Bryan, employed by the school,” he said. “I basically work like a teacher, I work on student days and so many after school events — football games, basketball games, dances, that kind of thing.”

Randall is contracted to work 180 students days through the school as well as 10 additional days. Those additional days involve the events he covers, each of which counts for half a day, he said.

Randall hasn’t had to take a juvenile to the Northwest Ohio Juvenile Detention Center in his year and a half on the job.

Edon Police Chief Tom Szymczak said he’s only had to take two in the last 19 years.

“It’s not like an adult, it’s a completely different system,” he said. “When you have that kind of an issue, it’s fair to say you have to jump through hoops.”

Randall said things were overall calm in Bryan compared to what he has heard from his children, who attend Edon school, despite Bryan’s school being several times bigger.

“I’m hearing more stuff going on up here than we have in Bryan,” he said. “Kids getting into fights or arguing or vaping in the bathrooms. I’m hearing more of that up here than in Bryan.”

Randall said people enjoy having officers in the school, even the administrators.

“One principal said, ‘I would never have imagined having an officer in the school and now I can’t imagine not having one,’” Randall said. “It seems we have a pretty beneficial program.”

Szymczak said the SRO program has changed “dramatically” over the years.

“You have officers that are actually in classrooms teaching; You have officers that are involved and engaging with kids from a very young age,” he said. “There’s grant dollars that are available to bring programs into the school that they might not be eligible for because they don’t have an SRO.”

Overall, an officer can fill many different roles and not just an enforcer.

Mayor Duane Thiel thanked Randall for the information.

“It was nice to get some input for what we’re really looking for,” he said.