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School district employs security officer, contracts with town for resource officer
REARDAN-Two types of officers are now patrolling school grounds and interacting with students here. The school district has contracted with the town for a full-time school resource officer in Melissa Foust, along with school security director Brad Eylar.
The enhanced security measures brought with two officers come at a time of heightened concern surrounding school safety, superintendent Eric Sobotta said.
"When I did town halls, school safety was the number one topic brought up," he said. "All of our parents want to make sure kids are safe when they come to school."
Eylar was hired earlier this year to replace outgoing security director Brian Scott. He is a full-time district employee and is in charge of security, disaster response and monitoring cyber threats.
"He plans our drills and creates our evacuation maps," Sobotta said. "He's the point person for online security."
Multiple lockdown/threat incidents last year that warranted a response from the Reardan Police Department as well as school security caused district staff and the school board to consider a further step.
"We felt like having someone on site was important as these things happened," Sobotta said. "It's nice to have two armed adults on campus fully on security."
Reardan has had armed security on campus since May 2018, when Scott was hired.
The district and town then reached an agreement on a one-year contract for Foust to become a school resource officer Monday through Friday. She is paid $35,000 by the district and $15,000 by the town, according to police chief Andy Manke.
"The town has thrown in an additional $15,000 to make the position a living wage position," he said.
Foust is supervised by Manke and Sobotta supervises Eylar.
The town brought Foust as a candidate to the school for the position.
"She was a natural fit," Sobotta said. "She's a relationship-builder. It's a win-win."
Foust said she will be full-time in the schools through the fall, then begin to patrol again every other weekend beginning in the winter.
She arrives at school around 7:30 a.m. as students begin to get off the bus.
"I love working with the kids and being here," Foust said. "It's a different way of policing...we can be kinder with students than we might with other (adults)."
Eylar is based at the high school, while Foust's home base is at the elementary school, though there is some natural overlap.
Because Eylar is a district employee and Foust is a town employee on a contract with the district, they have different job responsibilities.
Eylar has the authority to search a student's backpack or belongings if he feels it is necessary, as a principal would. Foust, as a commissioned law enforcement officer, needs a search warrant or probable cause for such an act.
As a law enforcement officer, Foust does the authority to arrest students, but that's not what she wants her main focus of the job to be.
"One worry from parents was I'm just going to go around arresting kids," Foust said. "But I think that's the wrong mentality to have."
Sobotta said it takes the whole district staff to facilitate a secure campus, not just two armed security officers.
"More important than having two armed officers is the relationships we have with our students," he said. "When we have those relationships with students, they'll tell us things and we'll hear about things we never would've otherwise because of that trust factor."
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