School resource officer approved for Suring

An Oconto County Sheriff’s Department deputy is expected to join the Suring Area School District as a school resource officer starting this week, thanks to an agreement approved Dec. 22 by the Oconto County Board of Supervisors.

According to the memorandum of understanding between the county and school district, the school resource officer program “strives to assist the school with providing a safe school and community environment, and strives to hold juveniles responsible for their actions and prevent individual problems from developing into patterns of delinquency.”

Objectives include to provide friendly contact between the Sheriff’s Office and young people, assistance and information sharing concerning problems and issues affecting the school and students, as well as the protection and safety education of children.

“School violence is obviously a very sensitive issue in the country right now, locally and nationally,” Sheriff Todd Skarban said as he introduced the agreement to the county board. “This is just something that came out of nowhere that’s a fantastic opportunity for us to partner with Suring.”

Supervisor Carol Heise, who served for many years as Suring village clerk, said having the deputy in the school will take some of the pressure off the village one-person police force, as well.

Skarban agreed, saying that former chief Phil Christenson and now Chief Kevin Schneider have found themselves spending as many as five days a week helping with school issues.

“That took away from code enforcement, that took away from regular routine patrol, which took away from investigation opportunities that now he’s going to have,” the sheriff said.

The deputy will have an added advantage over the chief because the school district doesn’t end at the village limits, he added.

“If a parent (from a rural area) is suspected of providing a vaping device to their student, now the deputy sheriff can get in his squad car and drive out there and find out the reason why, and they can go to the county courthouse and answer to the judge there,” Skarban said.

The Oconto and Oconto Falls school districts have both partnered with their city governments to establish resource officers in their schools, and Supervisor Tracy Ondik supports the sheriff expanding the program to other districts.

“I assure you that we’re beating the door down in Gillett to get this one way or another, because it just has to be,” Ondik said.

The officer’s salary and benefits are expected to be between $95,000 and $105,000 to start, and the agreement calls for the school district to pay $70,000 or 75% of that cost, whichever is higher. Skarban said he believes the county can absorb its share of the cost without additional budget money, because the deputy will be available for more traditional duties during those weeks and months that school is not in session.

“The cost savings when you have this person out on the road in the summertime, to fill a vacation void or those things where you actually have an additional resource, means this will have as close to a zero impact on the budget as possible,” he said.

Three experienced officers had applied to fill the position, Skarban told the board. Deputy Jess Keplinger was announced as the school resource officer on Jan. 3.