By GAGE WILSON
for Glasgow News 1
Caverna Independent Schools Board of Education met Thursday to a full agenda with over half of the two-hour meeting taken up by presentations given in the superintendent’s report. Members also discussed the hiring of a second school resource officer.
Before beginning, Abell took a moment to recognize the success of the ribbon cutting event that was Tuesday to show off the school’s new tennis courts. “We were very pleased with the amount of alumni and community members that came out to support the upgrade to this facility,” she said. She also pointed out that construction on the school’s softball bathrooms is coming along, however, she noted that they had run into some issues with plumbing. “We have worked through that and they are working on the interior plumbing now.”
The board then heard from Ken Cook, who prepared a report on student attendance. “There is a lot of hard work going on in the schools to get our attendance up,” he said. He explained that the dates he worked with ran from Aug. 18 to Sept. 5 for each school. Caverna’s Elementary School had an average attendance of 94.63 percent, the middle school was 94.15 and the high school was 93.7. At the board’s request Cook had also compiled attendance data for the district’s athletes, a time consuming task, according to Cook. “The average attendance for this demographic is 94.2, so in line with averages of other student populations.”
The board then heard from each of the school’s principals about updates on student engagement, communications with staff and goals related to plans for the new school year.
The board also discussed hiring a second school resource officer.
“Chief [Paul] Reynolds reached out to me Friday afternoon, he does have someone wanting to work,” Abell said. “That he could put in as a second SRO.” She went on to explain that before making a decision she would like to contact Horse Cave Police Chief Heather Childress and Horse Cave Mayor Randall Curry to see about getting an officer through their city. “I just want to know from the board, do you all want me to pursue this and put this in place this year, and we did try to get this in place this year, we just didn’t have the manpower.”
Abell did offer an alternative, asking the board members if they would be interested in training a special law enforcement officer. Abell explained that this individual would not be able to make an arrest or file charges, but would be able to carry out the functions of a normal resource officer from a police department.
For more information, Abell turned the floor over to Beth Hawke who advises the school on security measures. Hawke explained to the board that the Department of Justice offers training for those looking for certification. She went on to talk on how the jurisdiction of a special officer would be limited to the school, “They would only have power on school property.”
The board as a whole was very optimistic about hiring a second resource officer, with member Allison Dennison citing the school shooting that occurred Wednesday in Colorado as evidence for the need. Should the district approve another resource officer, the new officer would be stationed at the elementary school and current SRO Raphael Casas would patrol the middle and high schools. However the board floated the idea of not only hiring a second officer, but also sending Hawke to become certified as a special officer, in the event that she would need to fill in if one officer was not able to be present. Hawke was amiable to the idea, informing the board that the initial application comes with 80 hours of training. Hawke explained that the training will often occur through the summer so that her work would not suffer due to the training.
Ultimately, the board took a wait-and-see approach with members expecting more information at the next meeting, which is set for Oct. 9.
Comments