Several Pa school districts considering the start of their own police forces
State College PA Jan 15 2023
Two Centre County school districts are revisiting and discussing school security after months of feedback from community members and parents.
Penns Valley Area School District’s board of directors will vote Wednesday on several motions relating to starting a school police force.
Penns Valley is the only district in Centre County without school security officers.
The decision to consider adding officers comes after several months of community town halls, board meetings and a community-wide survey. That survey drew wide support from the community, with 85% of the survey responses supporting hiring school security staff.
Starting a school police force means PVSD would employ its own officers, rather than work with a local municipality to have resource officers in the schools. Although the district does not have a final cost estimate, other districts’ salaries range from $36,000 to $117,000 per officer per year.
Later this month, the State College Area School District will hold a forum so the board of directors and administration can “hear community sentiment regarding school resource officers,” Interim Superintendent Curtis Johnson wrote in an email to families.
The community forum on the role of school resource officers will be held Jan. 26, followed by a panel discussion on Feb. 13. Attendees can RSVP for the events online. The Jan. 26 forum, held from 6-8 p.m. in the State High cafeteria, will feature small group discussions with facilitators where participants will share perspectives.
The Feb. 13 event, from 6-7:30 p.m. in the high school small auditorium, will be a follow up to the Jan. 26 event and feature a panel that includes SCASD administrators and the high school SRO.
Feedback from the January event will be discussed and Elizabeth Siegelman, the program coordinator for Community Conferencing of Centre County, will serve as the panel moderator. “We look forward to hearing your thoughts and drawing on them to help us all better understand the role of SROs in our district,” Johnson wrote.
