<p>The Edinburgh school board and town council are on a mission: raise enough money to pay for the school district to hire its first school police officer.</p>
<p>The idea is to use grant money from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security’s Secured School Safety Grant, then match the grant dollars with local money.</p>
<p>The state provides $30,000, including $5,000 for training. The town agreed to fund $15,000 of the $25,000 match, with the rest coming from fundraising, Superintendent Doug Arnold said.</p>
<p>The district will know if it got the grant early this month, he said.</p>
<p>“If we get the grant, we’ll move forward with the project,” Arnold said. “It’s a collaborative effort.”</p>
<p>If the grant is awarded, the new school resource officer could begin working in January, Arnold said.</p>
<p>The school resource officer would be an employee of the town who the school contracts for 180 days, the number of days in a school year, he said.</p>
<p>Fundraisers are being conducted to raise the money. For example, one fundraiser was a flag football game between firefighters and Edinburgh High School alumni. Money from the event, including ticket sales, food and refreshments went to the school resource officer fund, Arnold said.</p>
<p>Although the Edinburgh Police Department can respond to an emergency at Edinburgh schools in a matter of minutes, having a school resource officer on campus could potentially save lives, he said.</p>
<p>“The police department is not that far from the high school, but heaven forbid there’s a terrible incident, the fact we had an officer in place makes it more likely to prohibit it, or the officer could intervene much more quickly,” Arnold said.</p>
