The school liaison officer is a police officer that works directly
By Aaron Martin
Sunday, November 01, 2009 at 9:00 p.m.
Read more: Local, Economy, Crime, Business, Education, Community, Election, Iron Mountain Schools, Ballot, School Liaison, School Liaison Officer
IRON MOUNTAIN -- With budget cuts happening across the state, many of the issues on Tuesday's ballot will involve cutting programs to save money.
One issue topping the list of Iron Mountain parents and students is funding the school liaison program.
"So many jobs or presentations that he does over the course of the year," said Iron Mountain Police Chief Pete Flaminio, "it's immeasurable, actually."
The school liaison is a police officer stationed at the school full time for everything from sporting events, to school dances, to day-to-day activities.
The issue calls for a 0.25 millage to cover the city's half of the liaison officer. The Iron Mountain Schools already cover the other half.
"The safety of our students is very important," said superintendent Scott McClure. "The safety of our employees is very important and again, it's subtle, but we have a lot of faith and we have a lot of trust in our liaison officer; we'd hate to lose that."
Chief Flaminio said from the police department's perspective, having a school liaison officer keeps the students safe and creates a connection that didn't exist before the program began in 1996.
"We didn't have that kind of connectivity with the students back then," Flaminio said. "It's more of a joint effort now, and it's worked out really well. We have seen the benefits of the program. If there is a problem in school, the kids are less hesitant to actually approach the officer."
Despite all the budget cuts facing public schools in Michigan, Superintendent McClure said he never once considered cutting the school liaison officer. If the issue doesn't pass on Tuesday, the Iron Mountain City Council would be forced to find another way to fund the project.
