The Santa Maria-Bonita School District approved its Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) at a June 23 board meeting outlining district goals and spending that supports students. The plan includes funding for two school resource officers, which some board members and public commenters opposed.
In the drafted LCAP presented at a June 9 board meeting, it was proposed that the elementary and junior high school district spend $380,000 on four school resource officers. Board member John Hollinshead questioned whether sworn police officers are still necessary on school campuses.
“I think we need to revisit and discuss what the role of an SRO [school resource officer] is on our campuses: Why they’re there, whether they’re effective, and whether we still want to engage in that practice, and where our monies might be spent better for the health and safety of our kids and whatnot,” Hollinshead said at the meeting. “I think that’s a really dated and antiquated way to spend the money.”
Melissa Dutra, SMBSD assistant superintendent of instructional services, clarified that the number of proposed officers would actually be two instead of four. Director of Pupil Personnel Dr. Brian Zimmerman said it’s because staffing the positions is an issue.
“I’ve been in contact with the police department and they are having trouble hiring folks, so it will be two,” he said. “When they’ve been assigned to the clusters of kids … they start a strong foundation with those kids and become a presence on campus. And then by the time they get to junior high school they’ve had them as their DARE instructor, they’ve seen them on campus, they know who they are, and they seek them out.”
Zimmerman added that having a police presence on campus could help in a potential active shooter situation.
But Boardmember Ricardo Valencia, much like Hollinshead, didn’t agree with Zimmerman. He expressed concerns that having school resource officers on campus contributes to the school-to-prison pipeline.
“Particularly youth of color who unfortunately oftentimes suffer discriminatory treatment at the hands of some of our law enforcement … for many of our youth, seeing a police officer is actually a very scary thing,” Valencia said.
Especially for children from immigrant families, Valencia continued, police are often associated with immigration enforcement.
“I think it’s really something that we need to really look critically at,” he continued. “Just because we’ve been doing it for a long time doesn’t mean it’s following best practices or following research.”
At the June 23 meeting, two public commenters also spoke out against funding school resource officers. They suggested reallocating SRO funding toward mental health programs for students, language interpretation, assisting with in-person learning, helping food insecure students, field trips, and outreach to Mixteco students.
“I would echo the thoughts of the folks in the community that we need to reimagine if we want SROs on our campuses, which I personally feel like the money could be much better spent to make kids feel healthy and whole,” Hollinshead said at the June 23 meeting.
Valencia agreed with Hollinshead’s points, and advocated to fund college and career opportunities, performing arts, and mental health programs instead of the two school resource officers.
Board President Linda Cordero argued that the purpose of an SRO at the elementary or junior high level is more than just punitive enforcement.
“They are helpers,” Cordero said. “You can go to a police officer for assistance with a variety of things.”
Despite the opposition from Hollinshead and Valencia, the board unanimously approved the LCAP at the June 23 meeting as presented and the SRO positions will go forward as outlined. Hollinshead told the Sun that he voted to approve the LCAP because, while he doesn’t support the SROs, he does support the rest of the plan.
“The district knows my opinion. I’m not going to deliver some kind of an ultimatum with regard to that, as far as the rest of the LCAP goes,” he said. “I’m not going to vote against all those other programs that are really profoundly important.”
This article appears in Jul 8-15, 2021.