SMCISD board approves amended school resource officer agreement

The San Marcos Consolidated ISD Board of Trustees passed an amended school resource officer agreement between the district and the City of San Marcos during Monday’s regular meeting. 

The school board previously approved the agreement for the use of San Marcos Police Department Officers as school resource officers at San Marcos High School, Goodnight Middle School, Miller Middle School and Lamar Personalized Learning Center. After the trustees unanimously approved the agreement, the San Marcos City Council made several changes to the memorandum of understanding. 

SMCISD Superintendent Michael Cardona, however, said concerns arose about some of the changes made by the city council. 

“Chief [Stan Standridge], myself and City Manager Bert Lumbreras and some of our executive cabinet, Mr. [Doug] Wozniak, we met last week to discuss some of these and there are a couple, and I’ll let chief explain, that we feel might be problematic from a legal standpoint,” Cardona said. “But if there’s a situation involving something that police have to be involved in quickly that necessitates administration not being involved. I could use a specific example, maybe something inappropriate with a minor of some kind that the police are already investigating. There would be potential for problems with always having two people in the room.”  

The amended contract changes a portion of the goal and objectives section of the contract to remove the language “respect for” the law. The new portion states “to foster educational programs and activities that will increase student’s knowledge of the law and law enforcement agencies as well as their rights and abilities to file grievances.”

“It was important to four of the seven councilmembers that we educate our students on how to file grievances against police officers,” Chief of Police Stan Standridge said during Monday’s meeting. “To be candid, I can live with that.” 

The amended contract also adds language that would require two people be present whenever a school resource officer counsels students in special situations, including “students suspected of engaging in criminal misconduct when the officer deems it necessary or it is requested by the principal or the principal’s designees or the SMCISD superintendent or the superintendent’s designee.”

“I explained to council that I can’t agree to this because there’s a provision to this that’s not lawful,” Standridge said. “To counsel public schools in special situations such as students suspected in engaging in criminal misconduct, please know that the records associated with juvenile offenders, and juveniles are defined in law as age of 10 up to 16, those are protected by statute … So, I could not allow a third party in the room when the school resource officer is counseling a student, specifically about a criminal justice matter.” 

Standridge stated that the school board could approve the amendment as written, but suggested that the trustees redact the portion that states, “such as students suspected of engaging in criminal misconduct.” 

Another portion adds language stating “The SMCISD shall create a mechanism by which to collect feedback from caregivers regarding the SRO program.”

Before taking action on the amended contract, Trustee Miguel Arredondo described the process of approving the agreement as “incredibly bizarre.”

“This came to us and we unanimously approved several months ago, and something somewhere has happened in which now we’ve been given directive to do additional things that I just think are outside of the purview of the ISD, or what we can do effectively,” Arredondo said. “I don’t know how to put into words where I’m going with this except that I’m in favor of the contract that we approved several months ago and that we voted on unanimously.”  

Trustee Kathy Hansen said she didn’t understand why the city sent the board of trustees a contract only to later amend it. 

“It’s a little confusing to me, if this were really important they would’ve put it in the beginning or wait until next year’s contract,” Hansen said. “I don’t have a problem approving it except for redacting that part [suggested by Standridge]. That’s my only thing, I want that redacted because I don’t want us to get into legal trouble.”  

The board approved the amended agreement with two amendments of their own, which included removing the language concerning “ such as students suspected of engaging in criminal misconduct.”   The board also approved an amendment, which added language to the change brought back to council — “The SMCISD shall create a mechanism by which to collect feedback from caregivers regarding the SRO program” — to include “collecting feedback from caregivers, staff and students.”

With the board of trustees’ approval, the amended contract will go back to the city council for approval.