Buckingham Approves Student Resource Officer For CB East

BUCKINGHAM TOWNSHIP, PA — A Student Resource Officer (SRO) is coming to the hallways and
classrooms at Central Bucks East High School sometime this fall.

On Wednesday, the Buckingham Township Board of Supervisors approved a Memorandum of Understanding with the Central Bucks School District to provide a full-time SRO stationed at the high school and reporting to Chief Michael Gallagher.

“This decision weighted on the side of safety, but also the public and the school district wanted it,” said board chairman Paul Calderaio.

“This is not something that will be new to us,” added supervisor Jon Forest, noting that the township's police officers are already interacting with the schools and the students on a regular basis as part of its community policing focus.

Under the five-year agreement, the Central Bucks School District will pick up the salary, benefits, equipment, and training of the SRO, a sworn law enforcement officer who will have the power to make an arrest.

The SRO will be selected from an internal pool of candidates interested in the job. The supervisors will then bring in a new officer to replace the officer assigned to CB East.

An SRO responds to calls, documents incidents that occur within the school, and strives to employ non-punitive techniques when interacting with at-risk students, according to the school district's director of operations Kevin Spencer.

In addition to their law enforcement responsibilities, Spencer said the SRO participates in educational programming, emergency management planning, mentors students and teachers, works cooperatively with the administration and staff to develop and employ safety measures and procedures, and "makes positive connections" with students, administration, faculty and staff.

The officer’s presence also provides a "visual reminder of safety" in the school, according to Spencer.

The school district has been working for the past few years to bring SRO’s into its three high schools.

In September 2022, the district reintroduced the program at South through a partnership with the Warrington Township Police Department.

And earlier this month, the district reached a Memorandum of Understanding with the Bucks County Sheriff’s Department to provide an SRO at Central Bucks West High School in Doylestown Borough.