The Danville District 118 School Board has approved an intergovernmental agreement with the Danville Police Department for an additional School Resource Officer within 118 schools. Currently, there are three. One is assigned to North Ridge Middle School; one to Danville High School; and a third spends half of their time at the high school, and the other half at Kenneth D. Bailey Academy. District 118 pays 75% of the cost for those three.
District 118 will be paying 100% for a fourth resource officer to be assigned to South View Upper Elementary School. Assistant Superintendent John Hart says this has been in the works for a while.
AUDIO: The school board has been very much in support of adding another resource officer. We’ve worked with the City of Danville; with Chief Yates. And there’s specialized training for SROs; so, you know, it does take time. (It’s) definitely worth the effort. (We) love the relationships the kids building with the officers.
District 118 Assistant Superintendent John Hart addresses the District 118 Board prior to Wednesday (Dec 13th) evening’s approval of an additional district School Resource Officer for South View Upper Elementary.
Hart says the new School Resource Officer at South View should be trained and ready to go by next August or September.
The District 118 Board also renewed information sharing agreements with both the Danville Police Department and Vermilion County Sheriff’s Department. Hart says this assures that if the school district or authorities hear anything the other entity should know, communication happens right away.
AUDIO: Probably one of the most valuable agreements that we have. Again, we get information to the police departments quickly, they get it to us quickly; share videos with one another.
Hart estimates that these agreements have been in place for about the past dozen years.
