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.
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.
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.
The district will know if it got the grant early this month, he said.
“If we get the grant, we’ll move forward with the project,” Arnold said. “It’s a collaborative effort.”
If the grant is awarded, the new school resource officer could begin working in January, Arnold said.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
