Cedar Rapids Police Lt. Cory McGarvey will be the first director of safety and transportation for Xavier Catholic Schools, overseeing emergency preparedness planning, school safety training and crisis management protocols across all campuses.
The number of students in Cedar Rapids schools charged with a crime fell by nearly 50 percent last school year, the result of work by a group violence intervention program that aims to prevent crime.
The agreement for school resource officers in Cedar Rapids schools remains largely unchanged after the City Council and school board this week approved keeping an officer stationed at five schools.
The legislation also would require Iowa’s 11 largest school districts — among them Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Council Bluffs, Iowa City, and Sioux City — to have at least one private security guard or school resource officer in each district high school.
Police say it’s because of the seriousness of the offenses students are committing.
A school resource officer at Polk Alternative makes small, positive impacts daily - like making sure the students get new shoes or taking the time to let a kid blow off steam and then find a possible solution, instead of getting in a fight.
Cedar Rapids School District and Cedar Rapids police officials are optimistic about the impact of contract changes made last summer for school resource officers — despite an increase in student arrests.
Racial justice advocates dive in to juvenile justice system data at Suspended Summit in Cedar Rapids on Friday.
With the school year already underway, the council’s vote ends a monthslong debate between city and school district officials over the presence of school resource officers mainly in middle schools.
“That's the best we could do as a council,” Mayor O’Donnell says after the school board declined the city’s offers to negotiate to keep the two additional school resource officers or to meet to discuss the program.
“It’s not logical to assume that five SROs will be able to do the work of seven,” the police chief said. City officials say changes account for the workload 5 instead of 7 SROs can handle after the school district removed them from middle schools.
Cedar Rapids school board president David Tominsky said the school board is not considering changing their decision on a contract for school resource officers after the mayor offered for the city to fund an additional two officers for middle schools.
Cedar Rapids school board votes to reduce the number of school resource officers in schools from seven to five
As a vote approaches on the school district’s school resource officer agreement with the Cedar Rapids police, the school board agreed to prioritize convening community stakeholders to identify solutions addressing the root causes to behavioral issues in schools.
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