SOLEDAD — A school resource officer position has been approved by the Soledad City Council for the 2017-18 school year and will be on the agenda at the Soledad Unified School District board meeting Sept. 13.
School Resource Officer Chris Tyler, under the new contract, would return to serve Soledad High School and Main Street Middle School for part of the time and serve the City of Soledad for the other portion. This school year marks Tyler’s second year in the school resource officer (SRO) role. Since Tyler’s time is split between the two organizations, the position is partially funded through federal and state grants through the Soledad School District, with the City of Soledad funding its portion through the General Fund.
The agreement is set to start Sept. 1 and run until June 30, 2018.
“I’m short staffed and I can’t give up a person two weeks early if we don’t have a contract in place,” Police Chief Eric Sills said. “We will probably end up kicking it off mid-September.”
Tyler’s work schedule of four hours at Soledad High School and Main Street Middle School would be Monday through Friday and he would be available to the Community Education Center and elementary school during that time as well. According to the contract, the SRO would serve on an intervention team at the middle and high school. The SRO could also be reassigned to regular patrol or other duties if the need arises.
“He does have the ability to be pulled from the schools for priority calls for service, but that will be limited,” Sills said. “Generally, he probably averages at least six hours or more a day at the schools.”
The agreement for the SRO officer was unanimously approved by the council on Aug. 2.
