Chester County Council voices support for hiring 3 deputies as school officers

Members of the Chester County Council voiced support Tuesday for a plan to hire three school resource officers and split the cost with the school district, which last year dropped the officers and hired a private security force.

“I have had more calls on this thing than anything else,” said council member John Wayne Holcombe, who said the public “is fond of putting them back.”

The Chester County school district last year opted to hire armed private guards to provide security on its school campuses instead of four trained sheriff’s deputies.

The controversial proposal to drop trained officers was led by former schools Superintendent Agnes Slayman, who later resigned amid allegations that she threatened employees and others and that she created a hostile work environment.

But County Supervisor Shane Stuart said the Chester County school district, now led by an interim superintendent, Angela Bain, has asked county leaders to work with schools to bring the deputies back.

Bain did not attend Tuesday’s County Council budget workshop, where the hiring of school resource officers was discussed.

Neither Bain nor a school district spokesman could be reached Tuesday evening, after the meeting.

No action was taken on the proposal Tuesday.

If the proposal is adopted, Chester County schools would have a mix of sheriff’s deputies and private security guards on its campuses.

Tommy Darby, county treasurer, said three school resource officers would cost $126,807, including benefits and retirement costs. Under the proposal, the county and school district would each pay half of that cost, Stuart said.

Darby said Chester County gets about $52,000 in federal forestry revenue that can be used for either schools or roads, and in the past the county has earmarked that money to pay for school resource officers.

With the forestry revenue included in the budget, Darby said, the actual cost to Chester County of hiring three resource officers is about $11,403.

Several council members voiced support for hiring more than three school resource officers. “I hope they get them in every school,” said council member Alex Oliphant.

County leaders said the initial proposal to hire school resource officers started with the possibility of hiring as many as six, but then was whittled down to three because of concerns about the cost.

Council members asked Stuart if there have been any problems with the private security officers.

Stuart said one student’s arm was broken during a recent fight at Chester High School, when a private security officer intervened to stop the fight and fell on the student’s arm.

In another incident, Stuart said, a private security guard did not intervene to stop a fight that broke out among students at Great Falls High School.

Stuart asked Chief Deputy Robert Sprouse of the sheriff’s office, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, if his accounts of the two incidents were correct, and Sprouse said they were.

Stuart said the council will host a public hearing on the county’s budget, which includes a proposal for three school resource officers to be hired by the sheriff’s office, at 6 p.m. May 23. The public hearing will be at the Chester County Government Building, 1476 J.A. Cochran Bypass.

After the school district dropped the four sheriff’s deputies as school resource officers last year, county officials agreed to keep the four deputies, who were reassigned to other duties.

This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 6:40 PM with the headline "Chester County Council voices support for hiring 3 deputies as school officers."