Officer-in-school effort set aside

An effort to put a school resource officer at Lake Roosevelt Schools and add another policeman to Grand Coulee’s department has been stopped, and grant funding for it turned down.

Funded partially by a federal grant, the effort would have expanded Grand Coulee Police efforts to enhance community relations and allay potential future problems with an in-school presence.

It also would have required coordination of two budgetary processes right at a time when both the city and the school district needed to finalize budgets by law.

The city had until Dec. 31 to accept its $293,125 grant from the U.S. Dept. of Justice.

But the Grand Coulee Dam School District Board of Directors heard concerns from students, and asked student representatives to survey the student body on the topic.

That survey showed a split opinion, with about half of students expressing concerns over altering policy to have an armed officer in the school facilities, Superintendent Rod Broadnax said Tuesday, noting the city had decided to turn back the money.

City Councilmember Tom Poplawski told the council at a special meeting Nov. 28 that the school district would not be considering the proposal until after the first of the year.

On a motion by Councilmember Anita Eylar, the council voted to direct the city attorney to draft a letter to ask the U.S. Dept. of Justice to defer the funding, explaining the “budgetary shortfall for the matching funds.”

Police officer Matt Gilbert, who wrote the grant application, expressed concern at an earlier meeting that such a turn-back of the offered funding would severely taint similar future city applications.