Franklin County sheriff Shannon Oliver expects to hear a decision soon on a federal grant application his department submitted that could open the door for school resource officer in Franklin County Schools.
Oliver said he was contacted by officials with the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program last week asking him to submit additional materials in support of the county's grant application.
“They are still taking the matter under advisement but said we would be notified soon if we are a recipient of the grant,” Oliver said.
The department applied for a COPS grant in the amount of $125,000 that would be paid over three years and would be earmarked for a school resource officer (or officers) to be shared by Vina, Tharptown, Belgreen and East Franklin Schools, the county schools not served by a local police department.
“The grant monies would strictly be for a school resource officer and would not be spent any other way,” Oliver said.
Oliver said several members of the Franklin County Sheriff's Department Reserve Program, along with one retired officer, are volunteering their time working in county schools this fall. Oliver said there are reserve officers in at least one school several days each week.
“They are there for visibility and for the school to know they have someone there or someone who can be there if they need them," Oliver said. "We've been doing this the last few weeks."
Oliver said that if the grant is approved he would expect the grant terms to regulate whether the county would have one or two school resource officers.
“They will tell us what we can do with the grant monies. We're just waiting now to see if we get it,” Oliver said.
The grant provides for 75/25 funding, meaning the sheriff's department, along with the assistance of Franklin County Schools, would be responsible for 25 percent of the total grant amount.
If the grant is approved, school resource officers could be in place by the spring semester of 2018, Oliver said.
“Our goal, if we get the grant, is to hire one full-time officer and, if the money's there, hire another part-time,” Oliver said. “Either way, they will go to the rural schools in the county. The idea would be for the officer to spend time at several schools and be active going from campus to campus.”
Franklin County Schools superintendent of education Greg Hamilton worked with Oliver in preparing the grant. Hamilton, who pledged during his campaign to address the need for school resource officers, said there would be a memorandum of understanding as part of the COPS grant stating the officers would only be school resource officers and could not be pulled from the schools to perform other duties.
Hamilton said the sheriff would post the jobs and set the salary, and the officers would work under the sheriff; at the same time, they would be the county school system's resource officers.
“This has been and remains extremely important to me, and we're trying to do everything we can to get it started,” Hamilton said. “The sheriff has been on board with this entire process. Sheriff Oliver should be commended for it. We appreciate his willingness to help us, along with the support of the Franklin County Commission.”
