JAMESTOWN, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The Jamestown Public School Board is currently in the hiring process for a new School Resource Officer (SRO).
Superintendent Dr. Rob Lech says they are thankful for the Jamestown Police Department in allowing them an active role in the search, which began after Officer Kourtney Renfro stepped down.
He added having two SRO’s, one in the elementary schools and the other in the middle and high school, would be beneficial to the district.
Dr. Lech says this may lead to SRO burnout.
Dr. Lech says they have interviewed two candidates and expect to have a decision soon on a new SRO. Future discussion may be held on the possibility of hiring two SRO’s for the school district.
In other school board business, the district has been tasked with hiring a new Jamestown Middle School Assistant Principal after hiring Mr. Mark Stilwell as the next principal. Interviews with the finalists is expected to be conducted this week with a recommended hire expected before the end of the school year.
Another item the district will need to address is traffic and transportation concerns at Lincoln Elementary.
“With Eventide purchasing the Legacy Center and the majority of the lots around Lincoln Elementary, the school district was recently informed that staff and parents will no longer be able to utilize parking lots for staff and family parking or for parent pickup and dropoff,” Dr. Lech stated in his report. “Given the limited space for parking around the residential area of Lincoln Elementary and the high traffic concentration, this will present some real challenges for staff and families.”
He added he is in the process of plotting out spots, but says they may could look at removing the Transition House or extend fence all the way from the previous Transition House across to Lincoln and turn the north section into a staff parking lot.
“To address code, we would need to correspondingly pave the three car lot on the east side of the campus to accommodate handicap parking,” Dr. Lech pointed out. “While this wouldn’t solve all of our problems, it would release a bit of pressure during pickup and drop-off by removing 20 to 22 teacher cars from the surrounding street parking.”
You can watch the whole School Board meeting courtesy of Jamestown Video below: