Council hears proposal to share officer with school district

Reardan police chief says shared officer would benefit town, school

Drew Lawson, The Times | Last updated Oct 22, 2020 4:36pm0

REARDAN—The school district is in the process of hiring a new security officer after former security officer Brian Scott was moved to head of security and informational technology. Police chief Andy Manke proposed a potential partnership between the district and town to council at its Oct. 15 meeting—but only if a certain candidate is hired.

His proposal hinges on Chris Stein being the district’s choice of hire. Stein is a reserve officer with the police department and is a school security officer in Spokane.

The school’s chosen candidate would have to come from the police reserves for Manke’s proposal to make fiscal and logical sense for the town, he said, and Stein is the most qualified, being a school security officer already.

“I talked to Jeff Anderson, the president of the school board, (superintendent) Eric Sobotta and I talked to Brian Scott about it a lot too,” Manke told council. “They have a strong interest in sharing an officer that’s commissioned with the town of Reardan.”

That officer would be employed by the district as a security officer during the school year and would be a full-time officer for the town during the summer and holidays such as winter break and spring break; a total of 154 days available to the town.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to have a cop-and-a-half,” Manke said.

The district is conducting interviews with potential candidates this week, Manke said and the district confirmed, so Stein is no guarantee to be the hire.

“They’re not going to give him any favoritism in the hiring process and interview process,” Manke said. “They’re not building this job around Chris Stein by any stretch of the imagination, and they’ve had some really strong applicants. If Chris does get hired over there and we do not approve the part-time and summertime employment here, he would have to bow out and give it to their next most eligible candidate.”

He added that Anderson, Sobotta and Scott are in favor of the partnership in the event that Stein is the hire.

“They’d love to have a commissioned officer with the Reardan patch working at the school if he’s qualified and the district hires him,” Manke said. “If there’s an investigation that leads him off campus, he can pursue those. If he has to make an arrest, he can do that. He can file reports with the prosecutor’s office. These are all things that Brian Scott currently could not do.”

Tasks like making arrests and filing reports with the prosecutors would be something only a candidate presently with the police reserves could perform, Manke added; i.e., Stein. Otherwise, those issues would be handled by the police department after a call from the school security officer, as is presently the procedure.

Stein worked with the police department over the summer at $15 an hour and year-round on the weekends as a reserve.

Manke said he would want Stein to get a raise to $20 an hour, which he estimated would cost the town $24,000.

“We’re not that far off already from what we allocated for reserve pay, as Chris would be taken out of that equation,” Manke said. “It would be around $6,000 difference.”

The district said they couldn’t comment beyond confirming that they were interviewing candidates for an “emergency response technician” this week when inquired, but provided a link to the requirements for the job.

The position would be four days a week part-time and non-continuing, only extending through the end of the school year. Next year, the district hopes to hire a full-time security officer, if the budget allows.

“They’ll be doing security work in the morning when the kids arrive at school (and) security work in the afternoon when the kids go home,” Manke told council. “During the day, that individual is going to be assisting the school nurse with maintaining the COVID-19 compliance, assisting with the kids that weren’t screened by their parents, screening them to get them into class.”

Manke said the town could use Stein on the one day a week when he wasn’t at the schools.

The district would pay for Stein’s benefits.

Manke asked council to consider the proposal and promised harder financial numbers at council’s next meeting if Stein is the district’s hire. If Stein is not the choice, the proposal would be all for naught. If Stein is the choice, Manke’s proposal would have to be approved by council and the school board.