LEBANON — The School Board voted this week to extend the agreement with the police department that provides the district with a school resource officer, or SRO, during the school day.
The specialized police position has been a source of controversy in recent years, and two citywide votes on the matter have shown that residents are divided on the issue.
The board voted, 5-4, at Wednesday’s regular board meeting to continue the school resource officer position until at least February 2024. Board members who supported the extension said they wanted to give time to see how the SRO worked in tandem with a social worker the district is adding next year.
“Eliminating the SRO is a simplistic approach to a deep-seated problem,” School Board Chairman Richard Milius said just before votes were cast.
Several residents and board members expressed frustration over how many times the same arguments have been heard over the last two years.
“We have to address the issue,” board member Lilian Maughan said. “There are compelling arguments on both sides, but they’ve asked us to make a decision. I think we need to make a decision.”
Board newcomer Renee DePalo, who was elected last month, urged her colleagues to act.
“We’ve done this for a couple of years now,” she said. “We need to make a decision and stick with it.”
No one attended the meeting in person to speak for or against the issue. Six residents participating via Zoom spoke in favor of eliminating the position, and one email to the board in support of keeping the SRO was read aloud by a board member. At the end of the public forum, Milius noted all correspondence received for the meeting had been posted online and included an additional three emails: two favoring removal and one with a neutral question.
The vote on Wednesday night had precedent. A year ago, the board voted, 7-1, to fund the specialized police post for the 2021-22 school year, after residents narrowly voted in a nonbinding article during March city elections urging the board to eliminate the position. Two weeks later, the board followed up with a 5-4 vote in favor of keeping the officer.
This past March, city voters again voted to defund the SRO position, though the decision was again nonbinding.
Milius, who was reelected board chairman March 23, reminded the board Wednesday that they were free to delay action despite the vote on Town Meeting Day.
“We’ve got no obligation to make a move,” he said. “We may feel pressure, but we are not required to. We have options.”
Board member Lisa Vallejo Sorensen, who has opposed the SRO position in the past, said the board should take the recent polling results into account.
“We’ve had a vote — again,” she said. “It feels like we should do something.”
Supporters argued that the addition of a new social worker could alleviate some of the concerns about the SRO’s counseling role and even address perceptions of police presence as a threat to minority groups. If the SRO left in February 2023, the two positions would overlap for only a few months.
DePalo, chairwoman of the city’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commission, spoke at length about the potential for a positive relationship between the existing SRO, the new social worker and another new position, District Director of Equity, Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment. She favored a 15-month overlap to “ensure the partnership is effective for our students and our community” and to allow enough time for reevaluation.
DePalo and Milius were joined by Aaron Mills, Stephen Kantor and Martha DiDomenico in supporting the continuance of the position, while Vallejo Sorensen, Mary Edes, Lilian Maughan and Kristin O’Rourke voted against.
Integrating the positions offers an opportunity to develop a robust program that some believe could offer a larger security net to all students, while keeping the option open to back out of the SRO commitment in the future.
L.A. Wetzel can be reached at wetzel3707@gmail.com.