POLAND TOWNSHIP School board will end program that funded resource officer

By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
POLAND -- Poland Seminary High School will no longer have a school resource officer after Feb. 23.
After meeting with township trustees this week, school board members elected to end the program, when the obligations of the federal grant received four years ago have been met.
Dr. Robert Zorn, superintendent, said the decision was based on finances, not the merits of the program.
"The trustees wanted a four-year minimum commitment," the superintendent said.
That's about $50,000 annually including salary and fringe benefits, or about $200,000 for four years.
"The school board took the position that we don't have $200,000 for this program," Zorn said. "There are just other more pressing, urgent needs."
Other districts
Of the other area districts that have the program, only Canfield, which has higher property tax millage than Poland, funds it completely from school district funds, he said.
In Boardman, the school district and township reached an agreement where both entities will share costs to keep the program going.
But Zorn pointed out that Poland Township's financial resources are limited too.
The district received a $125,000 grant from the U.S. Justice Department in 2001 to pay the salary of a township officer for three years to work in Poland Seminary High School.
A condition of the grant was that the officer's employment continue for at least one year after the grant expired, or until Feb. 23.
Township Trustee Robert Lidle Jr. said that the officer's employment with the township will continue with his joining the regular full-time patrol officer ranks. Another officer's retirement at the end of 2005 freed up a slot.
"It will bring us back to the full complement of police officers," Lidle said.