Abbotsford explores full-time school resource officer

The Abbotsford School District Board of Education discussed the addition of a full-time school resource officer (SRO) for the 2023-24 school year at its meeting on August 21.

Currently, Colby and Abbotsford School Districts share Patrick Leichtnam, the lone SRO at the Colby-Abbotsford Police Department. Leichtnam currently operates on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday schedule with one school one week and then is at the school Tuesday and Thursday the next week while spending the opposite days with the other school.

SROs help staff deal with behavior, truancy and counseling situations that arise throughout the school day. District Administrator Ryan Bargender and High School Principal Melissa Pilgrim summed up the SRO’s daily duties to the board. However, Pilgrim noted that the SRO does a lot more behind the scenes work on a day-to-day basis. Pilgrim said there are times where she is concerned that a kid is not at school and she has not heard from the student. Sometimes, she has the SRO make a house call to ensure the kid is OK and can come to school. She told board members this part of the job can take up to two hours of the SRO’s day.

Pilgrim said Leichtnam is constantly getting calls from schools asking him to help them with an issue.

“There are many days where I will call him in Colby and say, ‘I need you,’ and there are many days where Colby calls here and says, ‘We need you,’” Pilgrim said. “The flexibility is great because we all know that [he needs to be shared].”

She also said for most incidents that are reported, the SRO has a significant amount of paperwork to complete, especially when an issue rises to the level where Marathon or Clark County Social Services need to be involved. Pilgrim said Leichtnam serves as more than just a police force within the school. She said he is a counselor and has worked to bring resources into the school setting that has been beneficial.

As an example of what Leichtnam does on top of normal police officer duties, Pilgrim said she and Leichtnam had been spending time this summer with Abbotsford Municipal Judge Judy Kalepp to find out a solution for truancy issues. All parties were in agreement that fining the students was not an effective way of handling truancy and were wanting to look for another option. She lobbied for the full-time SRO saying she had worked in a district prior to Abbotsford that did not have a SRO. She said she would never want to work in a school without an SRO again.

Pilgrim expressed her excitement for the future of student-staff relations as the district institutes a new pupil services program in addition to a potential fulltime SRO for the 2023-24 school year.

“If we’re going to make this a district goal to revamp all the things we’re doing to help kids, this is a pivotal piece and one little piece of the puzzle we need to take to step forward and make things a little more seamless and consistent,” Pilgrim said. Bargender told the board that he and the administrative team work with Leichtnam regularly, planning school safety procedures and drills. He said districts like Spencer and Medford have full-time SROs while districts like Athens and Owen-Withee do not have a full or part time SRO. He also told the board that behavioral incidents with students have increased and are only going to get more and more prevalent.

“Over the last four years, we’ve had more expulsion hearings and pre-expulsions than we’ve had prior,” Bargender said.

New elementary principal Abbey Frischmann said she is coming to Abbotsford from a school that employed three full-time SROs for a student body of 3,500. She said having that many officers in the building was nice because it provided a more proactive approach to safety instead of being reactive.

Police Chief Jason Bauer was also in attendance and told the board that Leichtnam has been trying to use his vacation and comp time all summer but has not been able to get it all done. He said when Leichtnam is dealing with a problem at school, he can’t just leave at the end of his working shift. He must stay and ensure the issue is properly taken care of and paperwork is filled out which leads to overtime.

Bauer cautioned that if the board wanted to go ahead with a full-time SRO position, the police department and Colby School District would need at least 3-4 months to get another SRO placed in the school as the hiring process would have to be approved by both entities.

Board member Kraig Schindler asked about the daily duties of the SROs and asked if he currently supervises lunch or greets students at the door. Bargender said the current setup doesn’t allow for that much face time as the officer is dealing with paperwork, crisis situations, running back-and-forth between the schools or other things. Bargender also said he was confident that a fulltime SRO could do things like supervise lunch, greet kids at the door or attend sporting events or concerts. Bauer agreed.

“With [the SRO] not putting out fires at both schools simultaneously, I would expect some more duties and responsibilities. That would be a given,” Bauer said.

Board member Sharon Archambo said she would like to see the SRO’s job description better defined.

“In my perspective, I’d like to see a memorandum of understanding–a contract between the school and the police department as to what exactly is expected. Whether or not it would be beneficial to have him outside school doors in the morning and when the kids go home to create a relationship,” Archambo said.

Schindler said he just wanted something in writing that was, “more concrete.”

Board member Eric Brodhagen asked about the financial aspect of the position. Bauer said the schools currently pay 75 percent of the total cost of Leichtnam’s salary and benefits. He also said if the department were to add a full-time SRO, the cities wouldn’t be paying 25 percent of two SROs’ contracts. The department would instead cover 12.5 percent of both contracts, equaling the 25 percent the department currently covers.

In the end, Archambo motioned to table the discussion until the next meeting where the board will have an updated job description in place for a full-time SRO and can vote on whether or not to create the position then. The motion passed, unanimously.

Facility needs survey 2024

The board approved a draft for a survey to be sent out in the coming months that will gauge interest from the community on a referendum to help the district meet its facility needs in 2024 and beyond. Using projections from Baird, it was predicted that if the board wanted to do the full scope of work planned which included $18.5 million in upgrades, the mil rate would have to increase to $9.12 per thousand in assessed value. Instead, the board decided to go with a $17 million option on the survey that would allow the district to keep the mil rate burden the same as it was in 2022-23 for taxpayers within the district.

Brodhagen was insistent on keeping the mil rate the same, saying people have had to deal with many things increasing in price and their school-related tax bill shouldn’t be added to the list.

In having decreased the amount of proposed referendum income, the board discussed whether to keep the proposed project the same and get funding from other locations or cut items from the project to meet the new $17 million target amount. Bargender suggested they could reduce the scope of the HVAC projects in the north gym and ag rooms to cut out some of the cost.

The board ultimately decided that it was too early to decide what to do with the scope of the project as construction estimates and budget lines are not finalized as of yet. The board will officially have to set the district’s mil rate at the October annual meeting.

The surveys will hit mailboxes and email inboxes the week of September 11.

Other business

n The board approved entering a mutual technology support consortium agreement with Colby, Spencer and Granton School Districts. Troy Devine will serve as Abbotsford’s Technology Director. Devine will get support from the other technology directors within the consortium.

Abbotsford Elementary was recognized by the Wisconsin Response to Intervention Center for the implementation of the school’s multi-tiered system of support in both Math and Literacy.

n The board received updates on the district’s 2022-23 goals and the success they had in reaching them. The board also approved the district’s 202324 goals which include: Developing and administering professional learning communities to focus on elementary math and science review, middle school reboot of grades 6-8 science curriculum, high school biology initial implementation and the expansion of dual credit courses, English learner program development, district wide pupil service system and community engagement.