An Open Letter to the Maple Valley Community Regarding School Safety
As your Superintendent, I am writing to you on behalf of the Maple Valley School Board to ensure our community has a clear and complete understanding of our ongoing efforts to keep our students safe. Since the Eaton County safety millage failed in May, we have been working tirelessly to find a reliable law enforcement solution for our district. We have reached out for support from County Commissioner Andy Shaver and State Representative Angela Witwer, both of whom have been very supportive as we work to resolve this concern.
We believe it is important to be transparent about the challenges we are facing. For several months, there has been discussion regarding state funding known as 31aa funds. While this money sounds helpful, the School Board and I have found that it comes with serious risks. To receive these funds, the state requires us to sign a waiver that gives up our legal rights to attorney/client confidentiality. The instances in which the state could begin an investigation is not clearly defined and could allow the state to investigate our private legal records after events as common as a minor bus accident or a fight at a game. Furthermore, these rights would be waived indefinitely—meaning the state could look into our records for an undisclosed amount of time—even though the funding is only guaranteed for one year. Because of these unfair rules, over 50 other school districts are currently challenging the state in a court appeal. If they prevail, Maple Valley students would benefit from that outcome, but that will take some time and we want Police support now. Most districts in the state of Michigan have refused to waive their rights for 31aa. Specifically in Eaton County, only one of the districts opted to waive their rights. This is a bad piece of legislation, plain and simple. Student safety should not suffer for bad legislation.
We must also be responsible with our budget. The current plan offered by the Eaton County Sheriff Tom Reich would cost our district $66,000 a year for only 10 hours of support a week. In the past,we paid approximately $48,000 for nearly three times that amount of coverage. We do not believe our school district, which is also underfunded, should have to bear the costs of the unfunded liabilities within his department. Additionally, the Sheriff does not currently have an officer available to send to us, so even if we agreed to his offer, our students would remain unprotected while we wait for a new hire. We are currently working with the Eaton Controllers office on other potential options.
In contrast, the Nashville Village Police Department (NVPD) is ready to support us right now. Their response time to our schools is only 4 to 6 minutes, while the Michigan State Police, because they are spread so thin across 3 counties, often take between 29 minutes and an hour to arrive. Two of the NVPD officers are even Maple Valley alumni who are deeply committed to our students. We have already budgeted funds from our "At-Risk" money to pay for time dedicated to Maple Valley Schools, meaning the plan would have zero cost to Eaton County beyond minor Interagency Agreement paperwork. In an effort to secure a more rapid response time to our schools in Eaton County, we have even offered to not have an SRO program, just to get immediate dispatch of the NVPD to MV Schools. Sheriff Reich has denied us that request as well.
The only thing we ask is for Sheriff Reich to deputize these officers so they have the legal authority to act on our campuses in Eaton County. The Sheriff has claimed that "liability" is the reason he will not do this, but we believe this is an unreasonable stance. Policing, by its very nature, involves liability, and there are multiple ways to reduce liability that the Sheriff has refused to discuss or consider with us. We require a police level of immediate response because certified police have a different standard of restraint and the weight of the law as compared to a security firm or other agency we might hire. We may need restraint support and security firms we hire would not be able to provide that for us as they are not officers of the law. Additionally, while Sheriff Leaf has been an excellent support for us, he does not have any available officers to send to us as SROs. Neither Barry nor Eaton County have any available police for us to have an SRO program again.
To be clear, if there were an emergency and impending major threat to our district, all local agencies would respond at high speed to get us support. The challenge we face is not just the ongoing risk of danger, but the ease of managing minor to moderate situations that would require police support. That is what we are seeking and will continue to advocate for from Sheriff Reich.
Please understand that this partnership with Nashville is just a start. Our ultimate goal is to work back toward an available School Resource Officer (SRO) program that is financially sustainable and stays running without political interference from state or local funding restrictions.
We need your help to move this forward. I am asking you to advocate for this plan by calling or emailing the Eaton County Sheriff’s Office. Please ask them to work collaboratively with us and the Nashville Village Police to provide the immediate protection our children deserve. If you have additional questions, please feel free to reach out to me.
Sincerely,
Dr. Bertolini Superintendent, Maple Valley Schools
