SRO position causing imbalance
When Brush resident Brett Steven stepped up to the microphone during the citizen comment portion of the Jan. 23 Brush City Council Meeting, he asked about the student resource officer (SRO) situation at Brush High School.
“It’s a topic that needs to be addressed,” he said.
He also attended the Jan. 16 Brush School District RE-2J meeting where the board was adamant that its SRO contract with the city wasn’t being fulfilled. However, to Steven, that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
“It highlighted a bigger issue: the city and the school district apparently can’t communicate,” he stated.
This SRO matter didn’t spring up recently; it’s been ongoing since last August and could, at least loosely, be connected to last year’s sexual exploitation case, which caused a division in the community.
According to a November Vail Daily story, a parent contacted former SRO Jared Barham in the beginning of April about students sending nude pictures of minors to each other. Barham was unable to respond immediately since he had to cover the night shift for another Brush police officer.
The Vail Daily story stated Bradley Bass and Scott Hodgson, two Brush school administrators, launched an investigation which led to Bass talking to three boys who allegedly received the pictures from other students. The boys consented to show Bass the pictures, and he used his work phone to take pictures of the nude pictures for evidence.
In late April, Barham was able to respond to the matter and asked the administrators to file a report of their findings. In the report, Bass wrote the pictures he took were on file with the administration. Per the story, this was the first time former Brush Police Chief Derek Bos learned what the administrators did with the pictures.
In May, the Brush Police Department announced it was in
vestigating an unnamed administrator for “unlawfully collect(ing) pornographic images of juveniles,” and Bass was taken into custody on felony sexual exploitation charges after turning himself in in early June. Hodgson was similarly charged two weeks later.
The eight charges of child pornography against Bass were dropped, and he was unanimously voted to be reinstated by the school board on Oct. 17, according to Vail Daily. A judge granted a motion to dismiss Hodgson’s charges.
Brush Mayor Dana Sherman addressed Steven’s comments later on in the meeting, stating she was “flabbergasted” at the discussion taking place at the Jan. 16 school board meeting. She said she spoke with School Board President Brad Mortensen last August about resolving the SRO situation. From that conversation, a subcommittee comprised of Sherman, Mortensen, Brush City Administrator Monty Torres, RE-2J Superintendent Dr. Bill Wilson, and two other school board members, met Aug. 19.
Sherman said it was “a very positive meeting” and there were five main takeaways. Those takeaways were emailed out by Dr. Wilson, according to Sherman, with the first takeaway being the school district was going to send a letter to Bos about concerns with Barham, and school officials wanting a new SRO. The letter of concern was never sent out, according to Sherman.
Bos left the BPD in December to take the same position in Eagle, Colorado, and Brandon Flecksteiner has been the interim chief of police since that time.
“Our current SRO is currently out because of medical reasons,” Flecksteiner said in an interview with The Fort Morgan Times on Feb. 1.
The SRO he was referring to is Barham. He said Barham has been out sick since last September, and in place of him, Flecksteiner said other BPD officers have been present at BHS acting as “liaisons.”
“For the most part, we’ve had officers just doing walkthroughs and just kind of maintaining a similar presence that the student resource officer was (doing) before, but we’re still actively working on getting something more long-term in place,” he said.
Flecksteiner said City Council and the School Board have an understanding that other BPD officers are present at the school handling duties like maintaining traffic.
“I mean, for the most part, I think it’s relatively positive,” said Flecksteiner on the relationship between the school board and BPD. “I know there’s been some struggles in maintaining the program as is. I know there’s been some communications we’ve had to work through, but it’s been pretty open and receptive on both sides for the most part.”
Torres, who spoke with The Times on Feb. 6, said the subcommittee was solely formed to address the SRO agreement. He confirmed Dr. Wilson did send out an email addressing everything that took place at the meeting, how the subcommittee wanted to proceed and the five takeaways.
“We did everything we were supposed to have done, and answered and brought information forward,” Torres said. “At the Jan. 16 (School Board) meeting, some of the things being said, it didn’t match up with what the subcommittee was doing.”
“Their (School Board) comments, it appeared, they may not have understood the subcommittee, the outcome of it, and the direction we all agreed to go on,” Torres added.
When asked how the School Board isn’t getting correct information or not understanding what the subcommittee is doing since school board members are on it, Torres replied, “that’s the question.”
A second subcommittee meeting was held on Jan. 31 at the Brush Golf Course, with Sherman, Torres, Flecksteiner, Mortensen, another unknown City Council member, and another unknown School Board member attending.
“Right now, we’re just kind of trying to work through the SRO agreement,” said Sherman in an interview with The Times on Feb. 2. “We’re doing our best to work with the school district to come up with a solution that will work for everybody. That’s all we can do right now.”
Also from that last subcommittee meeting, she said staff and the city’s attorney are working on an agreement she anticipated being delivered to the School Board before its meeting this month.
“We’re trying really hard to work with them (School Board) and stay positive and do what needs to be done for what’s good for the kids,” she said.
When asked where the disconnect is between the two parties over this agreement, she replied “I don’t have any comment on that one.”
Torres said the discussion at the last subcommittee meeting also focused on figuring out how things got lost in translation since the original meeting in August.
“Our notes didn’t have anything about changing the SRO agreement,” he said. “I don’t think the School Board understood what we wanted to do; they’re going in a different direction.”
As for the changes the School Board is seeking, Torres spoke about a few he’s heard, like meeting periodically to discuss the SRO program, the district not wanting the SRO in the school but wanting an external presence, and wanting the officer to check in at the front office.
At the City Council meeting, Brush’s City Attorney Dan Krob laid out a timeline of email exchanges he’s had with the school district’s attorney, Holly Ortiz, since September. He instructed City Council to make a motion to waive client-attorney privilege before doing so, since the City Council is the client and Krob couldn’t share the emails without City Council approval. It was unanimously approved.
Krob said on Sept. 16 he emailed Ortiz asking for drafts for changes to the agreement. Ortiz replied she hadn’t spoken to the School Board yet as to changes they were seeking.
On Sept. 21, Krob asked Ortiz for an update but did not receive a response from her, according to him. On Halloween, he said the School Board proposed a new SRO agreement. On Nov. 28, he asked Ortiz for a redlining so City Council knew what changed. On Dec. 16, Ortiz told Krob there wasn’t a redlined version, but offered to send the original agreement along with an amended agreement that highlighted the changes. Krob agreed to this.
Krob said he didn’t hear from Ortiz until he reached out to her on Jan. 17, when he asked for the highlighted changes. Two days later, Ortiz sent the changes to him.
The SRO situation is ongoing and will continue to be monitored by The Times.
Emails to Mortensen for comments on this story were returned with no comment. Calls to Dr. Wilson were not returned and an email to school board treasurer Brandy Hansen was not returned.