The Clinton County Council gave its consent to help with funding to add one school resource officer each for Clinton Central and Clinton Prairie schools Tuesday morning.
“We received a request today to support a grant application which is actually by the county that would be in conjunction with Clinton Central and Clinton Prairie to provide a full time school resource officer for each of those schools,” said County Council President Alan Dunn. “Currently, there are officers that are part time and they are off duty Clinton County Sheriff’s deputies that sign up on a sheet and get paid by the schools. This would give a presence at these schools. With recent events that we all aware of, it’s a very timely discussion.”
Dunn said the grant is for three years with the fourth year being the responsibility of local government and schools to fund financially.
Dunn added that it is imperative that both schools have someone on duty.
“It’s not a luxury anymore. It’s a necessity,” said Dunn. “As a parent of a student at Clinton Central, I want to know that my student is safe out there and that there is a school resource officer available. I think it’s something the public would support, something the council supported and it’s a very reasonable expense for the county because they are paying a very small amount of the cost. The schools would pay 75 percent of the costs.”
In other news, the Council had a discussion with its department heads regarding recommended pay raises for budget year 2023.
“The guidance we gave today was for the department heads to advertise 10 percent wage growth,” said Dunn. “But, I expect revenues to go up four percent. That’s a big reach. And I challenged them to think of ways to have their departments operate more efficiently. Let’s think of things that were maybe luxuries that aren’t necessities from the budget.”