Supervisors approve New London school resource officer agreement

MT. PLEASANT — The Henry County Board of Supervisors signed off on a new 28E Agreement with the New London Community School District to provide them a Henry County Sheriff’s Deputy as the district’s school resource officer.

Even as the supervisors approved the agreement, supervisor and acting chair for the Thursday, Oct. 10 meeting Marc Lindeen expressed continued reservations about the agreement.

“I don't want us to get comfortable with this in the future, because I can see where we will not be able to do a resource officer for a school,” Lindeen said. “Budgeting wise, I can see that happening and they’re going to have to do something else. We’re putting it on the back of all of Henry County for this one school district.”

Sheriff Rich McNamee reminded the supervisors that the 28E agreement signed by the school district and Board of Supervisors outlines how NLCSD will reimburse the complete costs for every moment a deputy spends in the district as a school resource officer.

Even with this agreement, which changes the SRO position from part-time to full-time, the Henry County Sheriff’s Office will not hire another deputy for their department. When the initial request to move this position to full-time came in along with a request from Winfield-Mt. Union for a part-time SRO, McNamee requested an additional deputy be added to his department.

While at one point the supervisors approved this request, when WMU opted to work with Winfield Police Department to fill their need, the Board of Supervisors reconsidered and withdrew that approval. Without this additional deputy spot open, Lindeen continued to express concerns for the arrangement stating that this would short the county.

“I disagree with you. I'm sorry, this deputy is working a third of the year on the roads of Henry County,” McNamee responded. “He's working for a portion of New London, which is a portion of Henry County. His entire schedule he's serving the citizens of Henry County. He's focused on a group, but we don't ridicule an investigator for investigating a meth case in Rome when he focuses all his attention on Rome. It's the same principle to me. We're serving the citizens of Henry County.”

Despite the raised concerns, both Chad White and Lindeen approved the 28E agreement. Supervisor Greg Moeller was absent from the meeting.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Kruse@southeastiowaunion.com