Photo by Douglass Huxley Greg Grant, left, Wood County Schools custodial coordinator, and John Loscar, county-wide head custodian, talked to the Wood County Board of Education Tuesday night about the district’s personnel employees who helped get area schools ready for the new year.

PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Board of Education heard Tuesday night from Jeremy Bell, Wood County Schools’ safety and security coordinator, that there is an increase in the funding cost for School Resource Officers (SROs).

“I think paying for these officers is the best way moving forward,” Bell said.

He said there is a one-time fee for each department to place an officer in a school. He said those fees this year were:

– Parkersburg Police Department: $50,000 per SRO (a significant increase from previous years), with four being placed in schools

– Wood County Sheriff’s Office: $20,000, with one officer

(Photo by Douglass Huxley) Jeremy Bell, Wood County Schools safety and security coordinator, gave the Wood County Board of Education a security update Tuesday night, where he spoke about the district investing in a new visitor management and crisis alert system, upgrading camera systems for better video retention and the increase in funding for School Resource Officers (SROs).

– Williamstown Police Department: $20,000 with one officer

– Vienna Police Department: $20,000 with one office

– A total of $260,000 for seven SROs

Bell said this increase comes from the Parkersburg mayor’s office but is related to a shortage of police officers and a lack of funding.

“(The increase) is because we’re taking four officers off the road that they desperately need,” Bell told the board. “They don’t get that grant money that they used to, that’s called the JAG grant, they don’t get that grant money anymore. They can get it, but it’s not as much as it used to be.”

Bell talked about the alternative of establishing a separate school police department or hiring their own security officers, but said this would have significant drawbacks.

“To me, I think we lose a lot of credibility by doing that,” Bell said, highlighting the additional costs and responsibilities. “We have to pay for weapons, ammo, vehicles, other safety equipment, through Wood County Schools, and we’ve never done that before, so it’s a big undertaking.”

He also said there would be legal concerns, saying private security doesn’t have the immunity from lawsuits that a police officer would. He said that by establishing a good rapport with the local departments now, this could help the district in the future.

“What I want to do in the future is… if we pay more for these officers, I want two or three or four more. And hopefully that relationship that we’re building with these agencies can grow over time, and that they can give us more people,” he said.

Bell said the district has also upgraded its radio system helping with communication across the district.

“Now every teacher has radios to communicate throughout the building, and obviously it makes [for] improved real-time communication [and] ensures rapid response,” Bell said. “Secretaries will have those on their desks. They’ll be able to contact the 911 Center… and communicate with bus drivers. This is going to cost right around $100,000 to complete. And this is the final phase of my radio updates.”

Bell also said camera system upgrades are ongoing, with the first phase completed at secondary schools and the transportation department.

“Every elementary school is going to begin to get an update,” he said. “My third and final phase is new servers… with these new servers, we’ll be able to have 30 days of saved footage for every single school. So that’s way better than what we have right now.”

In other business, Greg Grant, custodial coordinator, and John Loscar, county-wide head custodian, talked to the board about district personnel employees who were hired as “Summer Extra Help” that tackled a wide range of projects across the district.

“We hired 30 outstanding individuals who helped us accomplish tasks that I did not think that we were actually going to be able to achieve,” Grant said.

He said the team helped with the closing of VanDevender Middle School, Fairplains Elementary and Maplewood, where they were responsible for moving and tagging furniture, cleaning and preparing schools for public viewing. They also helped other schools in the district by painting hallways, restoring flower beds, and many other things.

“They did a phenomenal job with everything that we asked of them. It was remarkable. That’s the only way that I can explain it,” Grant said. “I can’t express the amount of gratitude these employees were given for their help and services this year. I had a lot of feedback from a lot of people that said, ‘Thank you for your help,’ and they’re really hoping that we could do it again next year.”

Wood County Schools personnel employees who helped the district over the summer get ready for the first day:

Mowers:

– Keith McConnell

– David Stanley

Building Help:

– Brian Hall – Franklin

– Clark Rader – Emerson

– Cathy Worstell – Neale

Extra Help

– Jamie Ashley

– Justin Beha

– Thomas Berry

– William Betts

– Todd Cline

– Bobbie Bowens

– Monica Bryan

– Melinda Clark

– Jay Cronin

– Teresa Deaton

– Angie Detamore

– Stephen Dorsey

– Amber Everson

– Erin Fleak

– Matthew Lucas

– John McGill

– Typhanie McPherson

– Jami Miller

– Mark Myers

– Steven Sandy

– Mary Sprouse

– Jordan Stire

– Robin Westbrook

– Shelly Westfall

– Seth Wood