By Lori Ehde
Select members of Luverne School Board and the Rock County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday night in the district office as members of the county-school liaison committee.
The first item on the agenda was the possibility of a law enforcement officer spending time in school hallways.
The newly-formed Parents: The Anti-Drug and Violence Task Force, raised the school officer question at recent public meetings.
Sheriff Ron McClure attended the meeting to answer questions, and County Administrator Kyle Oldre presented information on federal grant money that could be applied for.
There is a $125,000 Community Oriented Policing grant available through the Department of Justice that would cover a school resource officer for a three-year time span.
Commissioners and board members at Tuesday's meeting did the math on that grant and figured the grant would provide roughly $40,000 per year toward an officer's position. But expenses surrounding the position would likely come to $25,000 per year more than that, and it would end after three years when the grant expires.
"You become accustomed to a service, and then what do you do when the grant runs out?" said Superintendent Vince Schaefer. "I'm not sure of the best avenue to fund it, but maybe it would take just a change in philosophy. Sometimes we're better off not getting too many bureaucrats involved through grants and take care of it ourselves."
As part of implementing the community policing approach to Rock County's law enforcement, Community Policing Institute representatives are reorganizing and prioritizing how deputies spend their time.
"We're replacing random patrol with specific duties," Oldre said, "...setting priorities as a community and letting the community be involved in the process."
While McClure was careful not to promise spare deputy hours in school hallways, he said with rescheduling, a school officer might be a priority. "I've got two or three guys who would jump on the chance to do it," McClure said.
Oldre added that with recent law enforcement retirements and more on the horizon, the county is building a pool of potential officers, some with school officer experience.
County and city attorney Don Klosterbuer said, "If we're both interested, how do we go about implementing it?"
He recommended the school and county wait until after the Policing Institute completes its work on rescheduling, and then see if some time could be arranged for a school resource officer.
Meanwhile, McClure said he'd check with districts that currently have school officers to see how their programs are structured and funded.
Community day care
Developer Don Dunham had agreed to provide community day care space in the lower level of the former Luverne Elementary School when he made the building into City Centre Apartments. In return, the city, county and school agreed to abate taxes on the property for a specified time period.
When Dunham provided unfinished space, the taxing entities terminated the abatement, and Dunham sued for breach of contract.
"It's pretty obvious we're not looking at day care at the previous sight," Oldre said of the City Centre Apartments, "but the community's been talking about a day-care center since the early 1980s, and I'm thinking we need to put it back on the table and talk about it."
Rock County Family Services Director Randy Ehlers said there are roughly 40 licensed providers in Rock County, and about 70 percent of those frequently operate on waivers to occasionally allow for more children.
"Right now it's not a problem, but a lot are at retirement age where they're thinking about getting out of the business," Ehlers said. "I see a growing need. It's an issue that's not going to go away."
Klosterbuer said he frequently hears speculation about the possibility of day care services on the school campus. "The school has indicated pretty clearly they're not interested in that," he said. "What were those reasons?"
Schaefer said there are two obstacles that couldn't be easily overcome: space and access. He said even if the district has space on campus to build a center or to accommodate one, curbside access is a major issue for daycare center, and traffic patterns on the school district wouldn’t allow for that.
Options for hospital
The day care question led to discussion about the hospital.
While nothing has been officially announced, Sioux Valley and Luverne Community Hospital are considering building a new hospital either on the north or south edge of town, and the City of Luverne and Rock County are potential owners of the existing structure.
At Tuesday's joint meeting, the two entities discussed possible uses for the facility, and day care surfaced as one of many possibilities.
The county could use the facility in several ways, but commissioners said it could be considered as a possible option for the Luverne Alternative School, which needs more space.
Oldre said if the County and City were to own the hospital structure, it wouldn't be ready for occupancy until late 2005 at the earliest, after necessary renovations.
In other business,
county and school representatives discussed:
Student mental health: "We're seeing more and more mental health issues get in the way of good family functioning and good school functioning," Ehlers said.
He said autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiance are on the rise nationwide, and Luverne's students are now catching up with the rest of the country.
Closed campus: Commissioner Ken Hoime asked if the School Board was going to act on requests to close Luverne's campus.
Board members replied that they heard one side of the story two meetings ago, and the other side at their last meeting Oct. 24, so they haven't yet had a chance to discuss it as a board.
Criminal violations by students: Schaefer asked McClure what the process was for law enforcement to communicate underage tobacco and drinking violations to the district.
McClure said the process is supposed to be that the dispatcher alerts the school soon after the initial complaint report is filed.
"I'm here to formally request that you check to see if that's happening," Schaefer said. "We just got one from another county that was six months old - which is pretty convenient for Minnesota State High School League standing."