The Appleton Area School District Board of Education met 01/24/2022. During the meeting they received a special presentation regarding the role and daily activities of a School Resource Officer.
AASD Chief Financial Officer Greg Hartjes reminded the Board that at the November 8th Board meeting they had approved a renewal of the district’s 5-year financial contract with the Appleton Police Department for the SRO program; however, many of the board members had questions about data that might show the success of the program.
Greg stated, “Other than some qualitative information that we’ve gathered from principals, we have not traditionally collected any data on the program.”
Along with the Financial contract that was approved on November 8, they had also presented a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that had been developed with the APD which set forth guidelines to ensure that APD staff, AASD staff, and the community had a shared understanding of the SRO program.
Per Greg, it was decided that a survey component would be included in the MOU going forward. The survey would be of students and parents. The Safety and Security Committee was working on that survey, and it would be ready to go out to parents and students in the spring.
During the November 8 meeting, the suggestion had been made that a School Resource Officer attend a future meeting and share some information on the day-to-day functions of their position. In light of that, Officer Brandon Schnese, a City of Appleton police officer who serves as the SRO at Madison Middle School, and Lieutenant Jack Taschner, the SRO coordinator for the APD and a former SRO at East High School, both appeared before the Board of Education to give a presentation and answer question.
Prior to the meeting Officer Schnese provided the board members with a log of daily activities that gave an overview into what the day of an SRO officer looked like.
He gave the Board a bit of his background. He had been the At-Risk coordinator at Appleton East at Appleton East High School from 2010-2015. In 2015, he transitioned into law enforcement, and in 2018 he started his time as the SRO at Madison Middle School.
He had provided the board a document that showed some of the things he did on a consistent basis and gave a glimpse of what his days looked like at Madison. He didn’t review it in detail because the board members had already been able to read it but he did not that there were a couple areas in which he thought kids benefited by having law enforcement in school: social media usage and mental health issues.
Officer Schnese told the Board, “What’s great about us being in the building is that we know of programs in the community that we can utilize to help in both those areas.”
Sexting and students not knowing all the dangers associated with it and not thinking about the long-term consequences of it was an issue. If that was something that only the school discussed with those students, they may miss out on a lot of things. However, SROs could help connect them to resources such as the Fox Cities Sexual Assault Crisis Center or the sexting diversion program run by the county, and they had the opportunity to help these students and families connect with resources that could provide further education and prevent those behaviors from happening again in the future.
He said that the Appleton Area School District had done an outstanding job acknowledging responding to mental health problems by implementing things such as the PATH Program, but beyond that, SROs had the ability to collaborate with juvenile intake, crisis centers, CPS, and various agencies to make sure that students and families were getting the most support possible so that they could achieve academic success.
He opened things up for questions.
Board member Deb Truyman asked if the SRO program had an effect on the number of students who, in the past, would have been considered truant. Had they seen success with getting students to come to school more?
There was a noticeable pause before Officer Schnese answered, “Truancy, you know—it’s a tough topic.” When he was a teacher, the saying had been that 80% of academic success is based on factors outside of the school. A lot of the variables influencing truancy were taking place inside the home. Within the school building, he collaborated with the social worker, and he and the associate principal were consistently talking to and trying to establish a relationship with those families and try to work with both students and parents to help them recognize the importance of an education and understand that it’s probably their best bet at improving their lives as they get older. “Sometimes we’re successful and other times it’s just an ongoing struggle. But we constantly try.”
He said that Lieutenant Taschner may have more specifics with the data regarding truancy in the time after truancy court was dismantled. It was still a hot topic.
He finished up by saying that trying to improve attendance is something that changes family to family. Each situation is very unique.
Board member Amanda Stuck said, “Before, when it was mentioned that there wasn’t data, the fact is that’s not true. We actually have to report this data to Department of Education and they have data for our district, and I’m curious what you’re doing about the fact that, for instance, the data shows that our black students make up only 4.8% of our population but yet make up 20.8% of our suspensions—out of school suspensions–and referrals, So I guess I’m just curious, the data’s pretty clear that students of color tend to be more targeted. What are you guys doing about that?”
She also wanted to know what SROs’ education and training in mental health was that prepared them to deal with those situations.
Officer Schnese said that whenever he talks to students, he tries to highlight that there are school consequences, there are law enforcement consequences, and sometimes there’s a combination of both. In his role he couldn’t necessarily talk about the school’s response (i.e., out of school suspensions), and he didn’t think it would be appropriate for hi to have that conversation.
Amanda said this was about referrals to law enforcement.
Officer Schnese said that each year was different. This year he didn’t think he had a single referral to juvenile intake. He approached issues with the mindset of wanting to give the lowest consequence necessary to get a desired result.
He said, “If we’re looking at trying to change behaviors, I’m okay with getting creative and working with families.” He gave an example from earlier that day where he spent several hours talking with students about social media and different messages that were being broadcast via snapchat. In those interviews, some kids came in, he talked to them, they hung their heads immediately, owned their behavior, showed empathy, and demonstrated remorse. For those kids, he could have a conversation, set up some guidelines, and they could then move past that situation.
Other kids, however, came in and didn’t show empathy or remorse and didn’t own the things they had said, so the response to them was different.
But specifically in terms of sending referrals to juvenile intake, at Madison, especially this year, there hadn’t been a need for it, and they’ve been able to address student behaviors in different ways.
In response to her question about his education he answered, “In regards to my training, I will not claim to be a counselor or a trained therapist. My role is to know what resources are available, to establish a rapport with those students so that they trust what I have to say and they respect my feedback, and then have the ability to connect them with the proper agencies or the proper people to get them the help that they need and that they deserve, and that goes with their families as well.”
Lieutenant Taschner broke in and requested to ask Amanda a clarifying question. “You spoke on the 4% and then—is that a 20% referral to law enforcement? Is that what you were speaking on specifically?”
Amanda answered “Yes”
Lieutenant Taschner then asked, “Okay, so that means the district then referred them to us? Correct?”
Board President Kay Eggert asked where this data was coming from, and Amanda answered off microphone so I couldn’t hear what she said.
Kay then asked Greg Hartjes to identify the report so that officers could know what was being referred to.
Greg said that in 2017, the Office of Civil Rights asked all school districts to complete a report which was on everything from graduation rates to test scores, attendance, bullying, and staffing ratios. One of the areas was referrals to law enforcement.
He went on to explain, “Our challenge was, we’ve never asked principals to document referrals to law enforcement in our infinite campus system. Some had, so that’s the data that we sent to the Office of Civil Rights. So, we had a handful of schools that did have some referrals to law enforcement. Some of them were for issues with theft. Some were smoking in the bathroom. Some were more minor at the elementary level. But they all were sent to the Office of Civil Rights, and so then OCR broke that data down and I believe Board Member Stuck that’s the data that you’re referring to. But like we shared when it was an article in the Post Crescent is—it’s not complete data from our district. It is data that we enter, but no guidelines have ever been given to a principal on how to enter that data or when. So that’s the data I believe you are referring to.”
Lieutenant Taschner said, “Okay, so then just to clarify, if that was referred to us that doesn’t necessarily mean that law enforcement referred that on to [Youth and Family Services] or did anything punitive with that information.” He noted that when something was referred to them, it could have multiple outcomes. It might result in a mediation session with the family, or it could end up going all the way to a referral to Youth and Family Services. A status offense such as smoking in the bathroom would result in nothing more than a citation at most because there was no state charge for that. He said that the numbers she gave were not referrals by School Resource Officers to Youth and Family Services.
[It’s still not clear to me exactly what she was referencing. It is possible to go to the Office of Civil Rights and look up their data on different schools and school districts, but when I looked up the Appleton Area School District I didn’t see a data point that seemed to align with what Amanda was referring to. It is true that, as was reported to the Board earlier this school year, Black students make up only 4.8% of AASD’s student population, but in the 2019-20 school year they accounted for 21% of out of school suspensions. Those numbers seem to align with what Amanda said, but I’m not sure if that’s what she was talking about because out of school suspensions aren’t implemented by SROs. I did email Amanda and ask for a copy of or a link to the report she referenced in this meeting so that I could get a better understanding of the conversation, but she did not respond.]
Amanda asked if SROs were keeping track of what happens when something goes to them. Did they have data they could provide to the board?
Lieutenant Taschner said they could not because SROs also cover sensitive crimes like child abuse that happen within the home. There was no breakdown of where an incident may have happened or what was a referral because of an incident at home vs an incident in school.
Board member Ed Ruffolo appreciated the daily log that Officer Schnese had provided. He was particularly struck by the activity on January 18th regarding an Instagram hate page.
He also said that when the Board had discussed the SRO program on November 8 that he had raised the question of students with disabilities, particularly those with behavioral or emotional disabilities, and the Post Crescent later published an article that showed well over half of all referrals are students with disabilities. He asked if they could talk a little bit about what special training or approach they take and how they even identify if a student might have behavioral disabilities and how they take that into account as they deal with those situations.
Officer Schnese said that depending on the student’s background, it might be as easy as recognizing what room they’re coming from. Another important factor is collaborating with the staff and getting to know those students. He was in a fortunate position because he had been licensed for alternative education and had been exposed to at-risk kids and students with IEPs.
He said that whenever he dealt with somebody in a state of crisis it was important to be patient and to know that it was not about him and to listen so that the student felt heard. Their ability to exit that crisis mode increased dramatically if they felt heard and the they could have a conversation and move on to the next steps.
He said that each situation was unique, so it was important to have a rapport with students. He could go weeks or months getting along with a student and then, when they struggle with something that had to be confronted, respect had been established—not because of his role as a police officer but because he knew the kid and their background and they had that previous time together. That then allowed him to be able to have hard conversations, and he thought they tended to get more positive change as a result.
Ed said it sounded like he had a background that not every officer had. He wondered how that type of approach was promoted through the entire SRO program.
Lieutenant Taschner said SROs cycle out of the program every 6 years. The interview process for SRO openings is conducted in collaboration with the district. This year Assistant Superintendent Mike Hernandez sat in on the interviews. They make sure that officers are Crisis Intervention Team trained and they understand their role within the building. “Our primary role is school safety. From there it’s building rapport and supplementing the staff of AASD as best as we can.”
He said they worked on training throughout their entire time within the district. They do a lot of collaborative things as a unit and look for different trainings for all officers to help promote the sorts of things that Officer Schnese was already able to do so easily due to his background in education.
Board member Kris Sauter said she knew that there had been an incredible amount of focus within the Appleton Police Department on mental health, and her understanding was they had individuals who had particular roles to promote mental health. She wondered if that had an effect on the SRO program as well.
Lieutenant Taschner answered affirmatively. He said that they had recently acquired a facility dog named Edison who had been brought to quite a few schools in the district. They’ve really focused on elementary level with him. They also utilize resources like APD’s Behavioral Health Officer and a staff member who works with officers when they’re dealing with individuals who are in crisis. He said there were a lot of programs the police department had added recently to promote alternative options, enhance their ability to offer wrap-around service, and keep kids safe and comfortable in the building when they are dealing with things such as a mental health crisis.
Kris said that, having been a teacher for a number of years, she found that having an SRO in the building was an incredible resource for staff. There were many times when she may have just had a suspicion that there was a family issue, and often the SRO was able to shed some light on that. She also thought the resources SROs brought in dealing with social media was helpful because it was challenging for a teacher to keep up on that. She thanked them for the work they did in the schools.
Officer Schnese appreciated the comment. He noted that when he was a teacher at East High School, their SRO spent a huge amount of time in his program and it put them in a much better position to deal with the students. He said their patrol unit does a phenomenal job of emailing every single time they have an interaction with a family or student outside of normal school hours. He can go days without an email and then get several at one time for different things such as a theft or a disturbance that happened in the home. Although they can’t go into detail with staff, they can at least make sure that staff has the appropriate information so that they can best support the student.
None of the other board members had any further questions.
View full meeting video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBQw_0P6LX0
View full meeting details here: http://go.boarddocs.com/wi/aasd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=CACQ6S66D8CE
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