The Boulder Valley school board on Tuesday approved a resolution directing the superintendent to end the school resource officer program while creating new options to ensure safety and improve discipline practices.
The target date to end the SRO program is January 2022.
While board members Richard Garcia and Lisa Sweeney-Miran advocated for firm end date instead of a target date, school board President Tina Marquis said she wanted to give the district “wiggle room” while trying to make a major change during a pandemic.
The board voted 6-1 to approve the resolution, which is based on concerns that students of color are more likely to be ticketed, arrested, suspended or expelled. School board member Donna Miers cast the dissenting vote.
Of the 45 arrests of students by school resource officers during the past three years, 33% were Latino students, who make up 19% of the district’s total enrollment, and 4% were Black students, who make up 1% of the district’s total enrollment.
School resource officers also gave 489 tickets to students during the past three years. Of those, 28% were issued to Latino students and 5% to Black students.
The resolution directs Superintendent Rob Anderson to develop a timeline and budget to create a comprehensive plan to reduce disparities in school discipline and end the SRO program. The plan is to be presented to the school board no later than May 1 and considered as part of the district’s budget process.
Miers said she voted against the resolution because she would rather see the district improve training for both SROs and staff members. She pointed out that school staff members initiate three out of four student referrals to SROs.
While board member Kathy Gebhardt voted yes, she emphasized that the focus shouldn’t be on the SRO program but on the district’s overall approach to discipline.
“I’m just uncomfortable with blaming everything on the SROs,” she said, adding she still wants to see police officers with specialized training as the ones who respond to calls from schools.
Before removing SROs, the resolution directs the superintendent to develop new school safety plans, revise intergovernmental agreements with law enforcement agencies and create opportunities for the community to learn about and provide input into what school safety will look like without SROs. Suggestions include starting a restorative justice program and hiring more mental health staff.
The resolution also directs the superintendent to incorporate diverse voices of administrators, teachers, students, families and community partners.
Anderson said schools will need to continue to call police to handle criminal issues. But with the right resources and training, teachers and school principals will have better options in handling non-criminal discipline issues, he said.
“We’re going to want to think about how do you redesign school safety,” he said. Boulder Valley agreed to have a community conversation about school resource officers after the NAACP’s Boulder County chapter asked the district in June to remove police officers from schools.
In its request, the NAACP cited data that shows Boulder Valley students of color are disciplined — sent out of the classroom, suspended or referred to police — at higher rates than their white classmates.
Along with looking at data and the role of school resource officers, the school board asked its new Equity Council and the District Accountability Committee to make recommendations, with both groups urging their removal from schools.
Boulder Valley has 10 school resource officers from police departments in Boulder, Broomfield, Lafayette and Louisville and the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, according to district officials.
The officers are paid by their respective agencies and do not cost the school district any money — though some agencies have unsuccessfully lobbied Boulder Valley in the past to contribute to the cost.
The Boulder City Council also recently voted on a budget that reduces the school resource officers provided by Boulder police to only one, reallocating four SRO positions to training positions.
