School signs agreement with VBT for school resource officer

At the Nov. 14 regular meeting of the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education a memo of understanding was approved with Van Buren Township to provide another school resource officer to the school district.
The agreement is in effect from Jan. 10, 2023 through Dec. 31, 2025.
Van Buren Township Deputy Police Chief Josh Monte, a graduate of Belleville High School, was present to explain the project. He said the new school resource officer will work with the Belleville Police Department’s resource officer Sgt. Kris Faull and with the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Department.
The school district will pay for 75% of the officer’s pay, which over the three years of the agreement amounts to $220,731.26. The township will pay remaining wages and fringes that amount to $138,977.50 over the three years.
The officer will mainly work at the high school but will service all the other schools as well. The lengthy agreement covers all the details of the officer’s work. The officer will spend 75% of his or her time with the schools but is an employee of the township.
At the end of the agenda, School Supt. Pete Kudlak explained the new way the district is regarding safety since working with the Secure Education Consultancy (SEC) which is made up of ex-police.
They are looking to set up common alert language in all of the schools and they are looking to have more specificity for roles assigned at the schools for emergency situations.
He pointed out school building areas that need to be made more safe and other structural and equipment changes the district is looking at. He said Dan Wright, who was recently appointed to a district safety position, will come to school board meetings to report on his work and explain how they are changing the way they do safety.
Sgt. Rick Houk of the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Department was present to explain what his department is doing in its county, where the troubled West Willow area is in the Van Buren School District. Students from this area are the ones who brought guns to school last spring.
He said officers are in that neighborhood, where there has been violent crime, and also have a presence on social media where the youth are now using codes. He said youth break into cars and homes to steal guns and then sell them. He said they are creating dossiers on certain individuals and citing landlords who continually rent properties to troubled people.
“We are only one piece of the puzzle,” he said, adding the police build the case and then turn it over to the prosecutor who files the charges and then it goes to court.
“We can only do so much,” Sgt. Houk said, adding the problem is not always taken care of. He said a new law says individuals now have to be 18 to be adults and those who are 17 have one more year in the youth home or are back to their parents’ custody.
“We arrest for larceny from a vehicle and they are sent home by the court,” he said.
He said the Sheriff’s Department has a tip line and when people call in tips, they can request the police not drive up in their driveways and instead call them back on the phone.
Sgt. Houk said he has two children in the Van Buren school district.
In other business in the two-hour meeting on Nov. 14, the board:
• Approved the audit of the 2021-22 school year as presented by Taylor Morgan with the top, “unmodified opinion.” It was noted that the student population in the district, which determines how much state funds are earned, is about the same this school year as last year which just was audited;
• Heard building presentations from Savage and Edgemont Schools;
• Approved the retirement of teacher Jerome Roberson of Owen Intermediate School after 23 years of service as of Oct. 26; and the resignations of teachers Tracey Ostuji of Owen as of Oct. 21 after less than a year of service, Bradley Pipok of Tyler as of Nov. 14 after five years of service, and Kristy Hickson of Rawsonville/Edgemont as of Nov. 22 after 12 years of service;
• Approved the employment of Inthira Borowicz at Owen Intermediate as a reading interventionist as of Nov. 29;
• Approved the retirements of non-instructional staff members Theresa Johnson of Savage after 23 years of service as of Dec. 23; Paula Brown of Early Childhood Center after 16 years of service as of Jan. 9; and the resignation of William Sheridan from BHS as of Nov. 30 after less than a year of service;
• Approved the employment of Shelly McEwen in the Food Service department as of Nov. 7;
• Heard two women, who both live in West Willow subdivision, urge the board to keep parents informed on guns being brought to school. She said she has a nephew at the school who didn’t know about the gun. Board President Amy Pearce said they did alert all the parents in the high school on those situations and one woman said all the families in the district should have gotten a letter. She said last week there was an incident on a bus to McBride where her niece and another girl were sexually harassed and the bus cameras should have caught it. The second woman said she is a substitute teacher and has not been informed what to do if an emergency arises while she is on the job; and
• Held a closed-door session at 6 p.m., before the regular meeting, to consider a request for reinstatement of a disciplined student. After the session, in an open meeting the board granted unconditional reinstatement to Student 19-20-007 for the 2022-23 school year.