Officer pitches school board for resource officer position

A police officer pitched to the school board the idea of writing grants to get a “resource officer” into Lake Roosevelt Schools.

Matt Gilbert, an officer with the Grand Coulee Police Department, spoke to the Grand Coulee Dam School District directors Nov. 13 after having met with Superintendent Rod Broadnax earlier.

Gilbert said he’d actually written a grant application earlier that could have paid for new locks the board had just learned, in previous presentation that night, would cost the district about $28,000.

“We were denied it based upon a poor relationship between our department and the school district,” he said.

So this year, he applied again for a grant that would pay for strengthening such community partner relationships and thereby increase community safety.

“That’s one of the many benefits of a community resource officer,” Gilbert said. “It opens the door for other grants with this partnership.”

He said he had spoken with now-retired superintendent Paul Turner last year on the resource officer idea, but funding it would have been a problem for the school district, so Gilbert looked for a grant to help in funding it.

Gilbert, who had not planned to present his proposal at last week’s meeting, said a grant had actually been awarded to Grand Coulee in October. Taking advantage of it would cost the district $78,000 a year for three years to fund the school resource officer (SRO) wages, benefits, and a vehicle.

He said he’s confident more grants can be found to fund it. Three of his grant applications have been successful so far, he said.

Based on a student representative Layla Flett’s comment that a discussion on the possibility of armed security in school a year ago had “scared a lot of kids,” the board will seek feedback from students on the idea. They invited Gilbert to come back to their meeting Nov. 27.