DeKalb report on increased District 428 school resource police officer presence receives favorable review

DeKALB – A six-month report delivered at a recent meeting of the DeKalb City Council indicated that DeKalb schools are in good standing with promoting safety given the expansion to the school resource officer program in the fall.

Last June, the city authorized a three-year pact with DeKalb School District 428 to boost support for SROs by adding two more, bringing the total districtwide to five.

Officer Chris Sullivan, who works as an SRO at DeKalb High School, said it’s clear that the effect of the expanded SRO program is felt.

“We cannot say there are no issues happening in the schools this year, but we are working along with the school district on a daily basis to improve conditions for safety and learning,” Sullivan said. “Everything’s a work in progress, but it seems like we’re in a better place now than we were in last year.”

The district now has two SROs for the high school, one for both of the middle schools and one for the six elementary schools in DeKalb city limits, according to city documents. Previously, the district assigned one SRO to the high school, one to the middle schools and one to the six elementary schools.

Police Chief David Byrd championed the cause that the district’s SROs are fighting for.

“I know the mayor, myself [and] city manager really fought hard to add the additional SROs,” Byrd said. “I think it was a long fight, but it was needed. I want to thank the City Council for helping us in improving what we thought was very important.”

When the city originally entertained the agreement with the district last summer, officials weighed the idea of adding two SROS with an option for a third at a later time. Both sides ultimately decided to move ahead with increasing the program’s ranks to five in total.

At the same time, both the city and the district have until 90 days before the start of the fall term to submit in writing a reduction in the number of SROs during the term of the agreement, according to city documents.

The agreement included language directing the district to distribute a revised code of conduct to all students and their parents at the onset of the 2022-23 school year. The pact between the city and the district prompted officials in the fall to distribute a new parent/student handbook, including district disciplinary policies and rules, to each students’ parents or guardians within 15 days of the first day of school, according to city documents.

This year marks the first in which the district is implementing its revised code of conduct.

“Everything’s a work in progress, but it seems like we’re in a better place now than we were in last year.”

—  Chris Sullivan, DeKalb High School police resource officer

Kyle Gerdes, the district’s director of student services, said he feels encouraged by the district’s student discipline data.

“Anecdotally, I can tell you I get fewer calls for consultation at this point in the year than I did in August and September from our building administrators, and that’s encouraged to talk through some of our more complicated situations,” Gerdes said. “But they are through training, through professional learning communities where we discuss various scenarios getting a better grasp of how to implement it themselves.”

DeKalb police data indicates that since August and the winter break that ensued, discipline referrals for physical altercations have risen to 367 at all of the district’s schools, of which 76 have occurred at the high school. During that same timeframe the year before, authorities reported 245 at all of the district’s schools, of which 70 occurred at the high school, data shows.

This is a product of a new Illinois State Board of Education policy prohibiting police from issuing citations to students and their families or guardians on school grounds and during class time.

City Manager Bill Nicklas said authorities can arrange for an opportunity off the premises to discuss what led to the violation, and there may be another process that ensues.

Gerdes acknowledged that the district is seeing a higher number of documented physical altercations and other incidents of aggressive behavior.

“Research would say that it’s not atypical to see an increase in the number of office discipline referrals related to that code of conduct,” he said. “For a few things, I think primarily what we’re looking at is there’s a focus on implementing this code of conduct from our administrators and from our staff. … There’s a little bit more of a targeted focus on it this year. We do contribute some of our numbers being up due to that.”

Gerdes maintains that restorative practices are a focus in District 428 schools.

“Regardless of what the consequence would be, as determined by our student code of conduct, our goal would be to hold the student accountable for their behavior but also engage them in a restorative process that allows them to engage back in the school [and] classroom community with success so they don’t repeat that same incident in the future,” he said.

DeKalb police data shows that from August to winter break, authorities issued 21 citations to students and their parents/guardians. That makes for a 12-count decrease from the start of fall term to winter break the previous school year.

DeKalb police data saw the arrest of students involved in physical altercations drop from 33 during the fall term through winter break of the 2021-22 school year to zero during the same timeframe in 2022-23.

Gerdes cautioned people from trying to draw conclusions from six months worth of data.

“I’m not saying we weren’t necessarily looking for behaviors and having a process to respond to those, but there’s a little bit more of a targeted focus on it this year,” Gerdes said. “We do contribute some of our numbers being up due to that.”

Byrd credited the versatility of the SROs for enabling them to excel in their roles.

“We can never forget that their job is to protect those students, the faculty from outside threats and that’s what they do every day, but then all of a sudden they have to play life coach,” he said. “They have to deal with a kid who got hurt or who needs a Band-Aid. This is how versatile they have to be.”

Byrd stressed that all the city’s SROs are after is compliance.

“Most of the time we would prefer that the school district handle most of the discipline administratively,” he said. “That way we can walk the other way. Those officers, their No. 1 goal is to keep everyone safe from external threats – not internal but external.”

Gerdes said that although the expanded SRO program has shown promise to this point, he looks forward to assessing what progress is made after a year.

“It’ll be very interesting as we go into next school year, where we have a baseline number to look at,” Gerdes said. “We have our first year of implementation, and then as we get into maybe this time next year to look at ‘How has the needle moved as we as a district learned how to implement our code of conduct, worked through some kinks?’ ”