Parent asks about school police officers after fight

A Gateway School District parent asked the school board Tuesday who oversees the district’s new police force and whether the officers have arrest powers.

Jeanette Beagle’s questions stemmed from a Jan. 9 incident at the high school in which several students were involved in a fight in the cafeteria. Gateway’s school police were not able to issue summary citations to students because the force hasn’t yet received its final paperwork from the state enabling it to do so.

The district called Monroeville police to write citations, but because Monroeville officers did not witness the incident, they had to complete an investigation before they could issue the citations.

“There’s a huge rift between you guys, the municipality, [Monroeville police] Chief [Doug] Cole,” Ms. Beagle said. “I don’t want to have this big fiasco again,” she said.

Ms. Beagle said she felt like the district “put our cart way in front of the horse” and said that the issues between the municipality and the district were “disheartening.”

School board president Scott Williams said that anytime something new is created, “you have to work the bugs out of it.”

“We’re going to have an intergovernmental meeting” with the municipality, Mr. Williams said. “We’d liketomendthatfence.”

The meeting between the district and municipality will be held in late January but will not be open to the public.

Board member Mary Beth Cirucci said that the school officers do not have arrest powers but do have the power to issue citations forsummaryoffenses.

Board member Chad Stubenbort added that the district’s police supervisor reports to the building principal and superintendent.

Ms. Cirucci said the police force should receive its final paperwork from the state by mid-February.

The board hired one additional officer at the meeting, bringing the number on the force to 10.

Ms. Cirucci said of the 10 officers, five have been trained as school police officers and the other five will receive that training over the summer.

In other business, the board voted to give a $5,000 one-time bonus to Gateway High School principal Peter Murphy and Cleveland Steward Elementary School principal Michael Jack.

The bonuses are awarded to principals who have been rated proficient or greater on their individual and building goals.