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News
By Allison Joy
IRON RIVER — The school resource officer position at West Iron will remain with the Sheriff’s Office, after a vote by the school board in March.
The former contract totaled $48,800. The new contract will cost the school $135,400. According to Superintendent Kevin Schmutzler, the position will be paid for via grants with no financial contribution from the school’s general fund.
Sheriff’s Deputy Doug Weesner held the position of WIC SRO from the program’s inception in 2018 until January of 2024. Sheriff’s Deputy Jeremy Allen replaced Weesner weeks before trial began in a case Weesner brought against a WIC student for felony assault, following a lunchroom argument. The student was found not guilty.
Allen took over Weesner’s duties early this year, with the WIC SRO agreement slated to expire in June. The school issued a request for proposals early this year.
“We’d like to take this opportunity to put out some proposals — for the sheriff’s department, the city, and any individual in the private [sector] security-wise — to submit some bids to us about what it would look like for a school resource officer bringing us into the future,” Schmutzler said in January when the request was approved.
Previously, Weesner’s compensation was based on 180 days of work annually, totaling $38,300. The Sheriff’s Office’s new proposed contract covers the SRO’s employment over the summer as well for a total annual compensation of $69,200.
The Sheriff’s Office proposed contract also includes retirement and health insurance costs for the SRO, neither of which were included in the previous contract. The cost of those line items adds up to about $25,500.
There are also additional operating costs outlined in the proposed contract. In addition to increased vehicle costs ($2,625 in the previous contract; $10,000 in the new contract) the new contract also includes line items for operating supplies, radio, service contracts and legal. Total cost of operating supplies in the new contract adds up to almost $28,000.
Under the new contract, during the summer season an SRO has not previously been employed, the SRO will provide services during summer school as well as, in part, “also be assigned to assist officers performing law enforcement services within the County generally, particularly within areas frequented by students such as parks, recreational events and venues, and other public facilities.”
The Iron River Police Department also submitted a proposal to provide WIC SRO services. Though it outlined a seasonal position, the cost in that proposal was also significantly higher than the school’s previous contract with the Sheriff’s Office. The estimated total cost submitted by IRPD was just over $78,000 for employment September–May. Insurance costs were comparable between the two proposals, with IRPD outlining lower compensation and operations costs.
As outlined in the IRPD proposal, Police Chief Curt Harrington would supervise the SRO, had his agency won the bid. Prior to Weesner’s replacement, Harrington had initially neglected to respond to the parent’s requests that his department take a report about Weesner’s alleged misconduct with their child. Instead, a public records request by the Reporter revealed Weesner received a call from Harrington about the student’s allegations and the family’s intent to file a report. Hours later, Weesner filed his own report alleging the student attacked him, leading to a felony charge of assaulting an officer to be brought against the student by Iron County Prosecutor Chad DeRouin.
The new proposed contract from the Sheriff’s Office specifies that the SRO will not be responsible for: school discipline issues including locker and strip searches; involvement in threat-assessment activities; equipment inspection; operating security devices including metal detectors; and enforcing school policies.
Per the contract, the SRO will “promote and facilitate public safety, employing principles of community policing and interaction with students, school staff” and the surrounding neighborhood; as well as fulfill a “positive facilitator role in cases involving aggressive student behavior and conduct … juvenile delinquency and misconduct…”
The new proposed contract also outlines the SRO’s responsibility to maintain a daily activity log and to submit monthly reports to both the school and Sheriff’s Office that will be subject to the Freedom of Information Act.