Liberty Elementary School District announced Monday it is partnering with Goodyear and Buckeye police to fit school safety officers or off-duty police for their elementary schools.

According to Liberty Elementary School’s Assistant Superintendent Jason Nuttall, Liberty met with the city of Goodyear to discuss  solutions to meet the board’s demand for law enforcement officers at each school.

“So, the Stronger Connections Grant allows us to think creatively about ways that we can hire off-duty folks or hire guys in their off days that they have,” said Nuttall at the Liberty Elementary School District governing board meeting Monday. “What I heard from the city of Goodyear was they don't necessarily want to go and do off-duty traffic for $70 an hour for some security company because there's no real benefit for them in the long-term. This grant has nothing to do with that. We can work on agreements with the cities to ensure that those men and women have an opportunity to come and support our schools.”

Liberty will meet with Buckeye Police Assistant Chief Robert Sanders Wednesday to discuss fielding options. Following that, the district will brainstorm with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

Unlike an SRO, an SSO is not a full-time devotee to the school.

Liberty Elementary School District board member Mike Todd claimed Buckeye treats Blue Horizon Elementary School differently than its native elementary school district school’s post-annexation.

“They're required, I believe, to provide an equal level of service to the community,” he said. “They are putting everybody over there at Buckeye Elementary. From what I hear, they've got officers assigned there. And then they tell us we don't have anybody for you, and that's what I keep hearing. So I think maybe we should when you meet with Chief Saunders, we should get a real clarification of what they're doing for the elementary schools in Buckeye and then ask why that's not here, why those services aren't shared because since we've become a part of the city, we've gotten very little.”

The Stronger Connections Grant stems from feedback provided by  school districts regarding the School Safety Program Grant. Schools reported challenges in hiring School Resource Officers under the School Safety Program Grant.

Unlike the Stronger Connections Grant, the School Safety Program Grant is limited to school resource officers, who must be certified police officers hired in full-time roles.

SSOs perform the same duties as an SRO as required by existing School Safety Grant protocol but in an off-duty or extra-duty capacity. The part-time status offers flexibility for schools that can’t fit permanent full-time SROs. 

In 2020, Liberty applied for a School Safety Program Grant, which helps fund counselors, social workers and school resource officers. At that time, there was a backlog of 70 school districts for school resource officers, so they have yet to receive officers.

The schools and the interested law enforcement agencies have until May 1 to apply and finalize agreements with the Arizona Department of Education for the Stronger Connections Grant.

Michael McDaniel can be reached at mmcdaniel@iniusa.org. We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.

Update:
This story incorrectly attributed a quotation to Liberty's chief researcher, not Jason Nuttall.