Park Record, April 19, 2024--The Summit County Sheriff’s Office and South Summit School District have partnered up to get a full-time School Resource Officer (SRO) in place at the school district — Detective Wes Stewart. This is the only SRO cost-share agreement in Summit County.
School safety has always been a top priority for school and police officials. South Summit has wanted a full-time School Resource Officer for years, but without funding to support an SRO position, Superintendent Maughan had to look outside the box.
Just over a year ago, Maughan began brainstorming with the Summit County Sheriff’s Office then-Sheriff and Chief Deputy Justin Martinez and Frank Smith, respectively, about other ways to make it happen. That’s when they came up with the idea to collaborate and share the cost.
Maughan took the idea back to his School Board for approval, and the Sheriff went back to the County Council to propose the idea. When Martinez left Summit County, newly appointed Sheriff Smith kept the project rolling. Both the Summit County Council and the South Summit School Board ultimately approved and applauded the proposal.
While school safety and the SRO program has always been a priority for the Sheriff’s Office, funding has traditionally required the Sheriff’s Office to assign full-time detectives who specialize in investigating crimes against children to also work as SROs. While this less-than-ideal approach has proved to be an effective solution in the past, maintaining a presence inside of our schools while balancing multiple police investigations has always been a difficult task for detectives.
This new partnership between the school district and the Sheriff’s Office helps to ensure a more consistent police presence at the South Summit Schools.
“We’re so appreciative of the School Board and the County Council for working together to make this happen,” says Maughan. “I have had so much positive feedback from administrators, teachers and parents. He’s already having an impact and exhibiting everything we could hope for in an SRO.”
Detective Stewart started in January and has enjoyed returning to the school setting. “It’s fantastic to get to know the students at the schools,” Detective Stewart said. “I have already met many extraordinary students with many talents.”
Stewart worked as a custodian at Granite School District for 14 years when he was approached by the SRO there, who encouraged him to become a police officer. Stewart eventually applied with the Granite Police Department and was hired, and he attended the POST (police academy). He worked with Granite’s SRO for a year before he was hired by Summit County Sheriff’s Office as a patrol deputy. After two and a half years, he jumped at the opportunity to become South Summit School District’s first full-time School Resource Officer. Stewart said, “The students have already started to learn my name and speak with me and make me feel like I’m a part of the South Summit School District family.”
South Summit School District was founded in 1913 and serves over 1,600 students throughout four schools. Their mission is to “support, empower, and inspire individuals to promote and achieve academic and character excellence.”