Agreement reached for Mt. Lebanon school resource officer
If all proceeds according to plan, a school resource officer will be in place on Aug. 27, the first day of classes in Mt. Lebanon.
Mt. Lebanon commissioners and a school board representative reached an agreement during the commission’s July 10 discussion session regarding a cost-sharing plan for the municipality and school district to provide an officer from the police department for three years.
Under the proposal, the district would pay 65 percent of the costs associated with a new police hire. A veteran of the force will be assigned as school resource officer, police Chief Aaron Lauth said. The proposal now goes to school district Superintendent Timothy Steinhauer.
“He has authorization to proceed,” school board member Alfonso Frioni, who attended the discussion session on Steinhauer’s behalf, said. “We’ve given him parameters, and this is pretty much within those parameters.”
The actual cost to each entity is not yet known.
“We are currently in arbitration with the police union,” municipal manager Keith McGill explained. “We won’t actually have a contract number until the results of that arbitration.”
A previous municipal proposal had the district footing 70 percent, reflecting the length of the academic year within a 12-month span. The officer is to take on municipal duties while school is not in session.
At that point, estimates of the school district’s share were $84,000 for the first year, $90,000 for the second and $98,000 for the third. The district countered with an offer for paying a flat fee of $80,000 for each of three years.
Lauth said that his department has a list of candidates for a new officer, who will take over the duties of the veteran assigned as school resource officer. The hiring process involves background investigations.
“It takes us about anywhere from a month to a month and a half to have the background thoroughly completed, and then making the decision to make the offer of employment,” he said.
Considering an additional two weeks for notice to the candidate’s current employer, the entire process could take about two months, Lauth explained. In such time frame, the officer would be joining the staff in September.
Until then, he said his department can fill the school position on an interim basis. An interim officer worked with the district from April through the end of the school year.
Money already had been appropriated in the 2018 municipal budget for part of the cost of a school resource officer from September through the end of December.
“This was done in order to allow the school district to have sufficient time to have your conversations,” McGill told Frioni, “knowing you’re on a fiscal year and the municipality is on a calendar year.”