Warsaw schools and the city of Warsaw have finalized an agreement to place four school resource officers in local schools.

The interlocal agreement between the city and Warsaw Community Schools was first introduced to the Warsaw Common Council last month (see story) and has since, according to Warsaw Police Chief Scott Whitaker, been approved by the WCS school board. Today, the Warsaw Board of Works and Public Safety also agreed to accept the contract as written.

According to the terms of the agreement, the city of Warsaw will pay for two full-time SROs while the school corporation pays the salaries and benefits for an additional two full-time SROs. The contract is drafted for 7 years and, in total, calls for WCS to pay the city $169,903.50 for the next two years divided into 8 equal payments. The contract will then be reviewed and adjusted annually beginning in 2015.

The schools to be served by the SROs will be all of those in the Warsaw Community Schools system which includes eight elementary schools, two middle schools and the high school. Whitaker said the concentration will likely be largely focused on the middle and high schools.

Warsaw currently provides two D.A.R.E. officers for WCS and one SRO at Warsaw Community High School. SROs will be chosen by Whitaker and will likely be Dave Morales, Doug Light, Jaime de la Fuente and Jeffrey Ticknor.

The SROs will be selected by the police chief and will also be qualified D.A.R.E. instructors. Those officers will work 8-hour shifts at their assigned schools when school is in session. When school is not in session the officers will be used for patrols and other official police duties for the city.

In related news, the B.O.W. approved travel requests for de la Fuente and Ticknor to attend Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy in Indianapolis on Nov. 19-20. An additional travel request for de la Fuente was also approved for Aug. 5-9 in Plainfield, Ill., for NASRO Basic SRO Training certification.

B.O.W. members are Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer, Jeff Grose and Charlie Smith.