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Liberty school board approves school resource officer partnership
LIBERTY
The Liberty Board of Education approved a partnership with the township to staff a school resource officer, who also will work for the township over summers and holidays.
Superintendent Joseph Nohra said an officer hasn’t been selected yet, and the pay will be negotiated. The school district will pay 70 percent and the police department will pay 30 percent of the officer’s salary.
Interim police Chief Toby Meloro mentioned he would like to select George Bednar, a longtime Liberty police officer and Liberty High School alum, for the role. He added the township is seeking grants to fund additional school resource officers.
“My No. 1 priority is the children in our schools,” he said.
Monday morning, Liberty police officers dropped off boxes of school supplies and backpacks and donated $500 collected by the department to families in need. Board members expressed their gratitude at the meeting.
Meloro said he spoke to several teachers and staff members during the police visit about the police department’s commitment to school safety.
Maureen Lloyd, former Lowellville treasurer, officially started her role as the district’s new treasurer Monday, replacing Brad Panak.
Her salary starts at $82,000 a year with a 3 percent increase after the first year.
The board also approved a partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank for the school’s food pantry and accepted a $2,250 donation from the Girard and Liberty Rotary to help fund it. Nohra said 30 students will get non-perishable food from the pantry twice a week during the school year.
Robert Thomas and Andrew Bittner with Guaranteed Clean Energy gave a presentation detailing their study of the school buildings and the district’s youth recreation center. The pair outlined changes that would make the buildings more energy efficient to cut costs and increase efficiency.