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Grant to be Sought to Hire Hiawatha School Resource Officer

By Greg Bebermeyer

05/07/2013

( KNZA )--A federal grant will be sought to hire a Hiawatha school resource officer.
The Hiawatha City Commission Monday evening authorized Mayor Crosby Gernon to sign an agreement with the Hiawatha School District for the police department to provide the school district with an officer, contingent on grant funding being awarded.
Police Chief John Defore plans to seek a COPS grant through the U.S. Bureau of Justice that would fund 75 percent of the wages and benefits of the school resource officer for three years. The city would pay the remaining 25 percent.
The grant requires that the position be maintained for a fourth year.
Defore says the officer would work with the schools when they are in session and for the city when they aren’t in session.
The mission of the school resource officer is to lessen juvenile crime in the school, to develop a rapport between students and law enforcement, and to ensure children are given the opportunity to become lifelong learners.
Defore says he would also like to start a DARE or Drug Abuse Resistance Education program in the schools.
Commissioner Steffen Shamburg said he would like to see the school resource officer also serve in the special education annex and recommended that the Brown County Special Education Cooperative be added to the agreement. Chief Defore agreed they should be added.
The grant application is due May 22nd, and the city will learn later this year if it’s successful.

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