Chicago City Wire

The West Chicago Elementary School District is considering an amended version of an intergovernmental agreement with the city, which could involve adding extra school resource officers (SRO) on campus.

The agreement was discussed by the West Chicago Elementary School District 33 Board during its meeting on Jan. 19. The district has been operating under an agreement with the city for some time now, in which one city police officer works as an SRO in the district. The amended agreement wouldn't change much, but it cleaned up some of the language and details to be more clear, and potentially add a second SRO from the city police to work in the district, possibly during after-school events, Superintendent Kristina Davis said.

"So, the intergovernmental agreement just agrees to the terms if there is one (extra SRO)," Davis told the board. "And then you'll see when we come back at the end of February, early March, with our staffing recommendations, you can decide as to whether or not you want to move forward with that. The city is eager to know because training is quite lengthy. So we're trying to keep good communication with them as to our intent. Apparently there's a quite lengthy training program to get that person through to be ready for the school year."

The use of police officers in schools doesn't infringe upon any minor’s rights or give police easier or better access to make arrests or charges within the school, Davis said. The officers are primarily there to protect the students and staff and form relationships with the younger generation. The SROs remain employees of the police department and work under the police chief, who works in conjunction with school leaders and share information. The district would be interested in staggering the schedules of the second SRO to have one available after school hours for practices and events. 

The district would agree to pay half of the city’s costs for an officer when they receive an SRO, paying $167,900 per officer with annual adjustments, the board learned.

While the city is eager to train another SRO to be placed in the schools and the department has had many officers show interest, the school board will officially decide on that aspect during its budget and staffing meetings in February and March. They approved the rest of the intergovernmental agreement with the city.