Novato school district curtails campus police program
Novato CA June 23 2021
Special police officers will still be available to Novato Unified School District next year, but the conditions, financing and even their uniforms will be different.
Trustees voted 6 to 1 for the changes in two motions at their meeting last week. The first motion included a measure to cancel any district financing for the program. Of the two school resource officers, the district has paid for one of them for the last two years using a $157,744 annual grant from the state Department of Justice.
The grant has expired and the district will not replace it with district general funds, Superintendent Kris Cosca said. He added that any district money already earmarked for the police program would be “redirected” to mental health services.
Novato police Chief Matthew McCaffrey said the city would still cover the costs of one officer — or possibly two.
“The SRO program will continue at the minimum with one officer, which will be funded by the City of Novato,” McCaffrey said in an email Tuesday. “Whether we continue with the second officer will depend on if we receive a grant that the police department applied for.”
In the second action, the district board voted to set up a coalition in September among students, staff, police and the Novato Community Equity Group to oversee protocols for how officers should operate on school campuses.
Currently, police are called in for some non-crime duties such as mental health checks or parking violations. The coalition would seek to limit police operations to such incidents as those involving guns or violence, for example. Students involved in non-criminal matters could be referred for restorative justice programs or for counseling.
“I support this plan because it establishes a need for rules of engagement,” said trustee Greg Mack. “It’s something we don’t have right now.”
Trustee Julie Jacobson said she was in favor of concentrating police operations on emergency matters. However, she cast the sole vote against the coalition plan because she wanted to support student voices who were calling for police to be removed completely.
“When we have our most vulnerable students saying, ‘I can’t learn here in this environment with an officer carrying a gun,’ we have to do something about that,” she said. “We can’t just let those students fall behind.”
Other changes approved include having officers wear more casual uniforms so as to be less intimidating and not assigning officers specifically to either San Marin or Novato high schools as they are now.
The actions came after months of protests and public demands to remove the school resource officers completely because of an alleged history of targeting Black students or other racial or ethnic groups
At least a half-dozen parents and students spoke during public comment at the meeting — some in support of eliminating the program and others backing the need for a police presence.
“Student voices need to be heard. BIPOC voices need to be heard,” said Novato High School student trustee Eva Gogas, using the acronym for Black, Indigenous and people of color.
She added that “the fear is not going to go away” unless all officers were removed from campus. She said the proposed changes, including more casual uniforms for officers, “were all cosmetic.”
“They are still cops,” she said.
San Marin High School student trustee Elizabeth Deruvo said while she appreciated the relationships built over the years between the district and the Novato Police Department, she felt compelled to represent the students in calling for officers to only come on campus in emergencies.
“The two main goals are to address a history of systemic racism and to create peace of mind,” she said. “There’s been a lot of pain in the past. I think it’s OK for police to take a step back.”
She said she hoped the district would be able to rebuild the relationships with police in the future.
Laura Rinkor, a paraeducator at Lu Sutton Elementary School in Novato, said she felt it was “important for kids to know that police were there if they needed help or needed to talk.”
She said school resource officers could serve as a “positive example” for children to be comfortable in interacting with adult authority figures and as a “liaison” between the schools and the police department.
At least one other Marin school district — San Rafael City Schools — has voted to eliminate school resource officers. The San Rafael Board of Education voted for the action in September.
