EGHS Settles Into New (Old) Safety Routine

Two years after he was reassigned due to budget cuts, EG police officer Al Marcella is back full time at East Greenwich High School, walking the halls, patrolling the parking lot, and chatting up the students.

The move comes in the wake of . The student was arrested April 1, charges were dropped April 5, he posted the essay to his facebook page April 6, . He is suspended indefinitely and on home confinement, according to officials.

and initially it was reported that two officers would remain on duty at the high school for the remainder of the year. But on Monday, Officer Al was alone manning the school.

“Right now it’s just one officer in the school,” he said. Even one is an expense no one is quite sure how to pay for.

“We estimate the cost to be no more than $12,000 until the end of the year,” said Town Manager Bill Sequino. That’s if police need to fill a shift using overtime pay (i.e. time and a half). Depending on staffing and vacations, it’s not certain that every shift would be overtime, he said, so the cost could be less.

In March, following a high-than-normal number of arrests and police calls at the high school, the School Department and EG Police decided to add an officer to the school (known as a School Resource Officer, or SRO) two days a week through the end of the year. That cost was planned to be divided 50-50 between the School Department and the town. Town officials said they are hoping the School Department will agree to pick up half the cost of a full-time officer through this school year.

Whether or not an SRO will be added to next year’s budget remains a question. At Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting, parent Jen Condon requested the panel make sure there’s an SRO full time at EGHS next year.

“Please, please, please for all of our children, get that back,” said Condon.

While School Committee members were sympathetic, they made no guarantee an SRO would be in the final budget. The Town Council has asked the School Committee to trim $400,000 from its budget. The cost of an SRO would be in addition to that. Even if split with the town, as has been proposed by Police Chief Tom Coyle, that would still add $25,000 to the school budget.

As for how the essay incident was handled, School Committee Chairwoman Deidre Gifford said she was more than satisfied.

“I’m very comfortable with the way it was handled,” she said. “I do understand parents’ frustration, but given the constraints the school and police were under, they did a fine job.”

For Marcella, it's a time to relearn a job and the kids he used to know.

"It was a little over a two-year absence, so quite a lot of the students I did know are gone now," he said. "It’s like starting over again. But it’s a good thing, it’s good to be back."