The Valparaiso City Council and Valparaiso Community Schools administration continue to wrangle with whether there is need for further security measures such as additional school resource officers.
Discussion and debate about the city council providing funding for school security staffing began at the Sept. 8 Valparaiso City Council meeting when council member Jack Pupillo, R-4th, introduced a resolution “to ensure sufficient school resource officer coverage and school security improvements,” with strong backing from council member Emilie Hunt, D-At-large, who serves as the liaison for school and council communication. Pupillo is the council liaison for city law enforcement agencies.
On Tuesday, the Valparaiso School Board was scheduled to meet in an executive session “to discuss the implementation of security systems,” according to the published agenda and as referenced by School Board President Erika Watkins at the school board’s Sept. 24 meeting.
“This conversation really began back in 2022 when our law enforcement professionals recommended staffing five school resource officers for our community schools,” Pupillo reminded Valparaiso Mayor Jon Costas and the council at the Sept. 8 meeting.
“Progress has been made, and today we are now up from three to four school resource officers but still short. After hearing from our local law enforcement officials and concerned parents, I felt it was my duty as the council liaison to our law enforcement officials to create this resolution, which ultimately works toward there being school resource officers assigned to every one of our schools.”
In response to Pupillo, both Hunt and council member Robert Cotton, D-2nd, questioned what data indicated the need for a fifth resource officer.
“But as a parent and an advocate for gun violence prevention, for me, if this is the recommendation we are being given, then it’s a fair question as to why this (addition of another school officer) hasn’t happened yet,” Hunt said.
“We’ve been asking this question for a year now, and I know it came up last year during our budgeting session. And if there is a need, then there should be a meeting among school officials and our law enforcement and council member Pupillo.”
Costas echoed the same during the Sept. 8 meeting but cautioned about the significant amount of resources required when adding security staffing.
“We all want our schools to be safe, but we know that we also have more than five schools to secure, think of our parochial schools to include as well, so this may or may not be the best use of limited resources,” Costas said.
Hunt recommended the resolution be delivered to the school board to research further and provide input and motioned at the Sept. 8 meeting that the resolution be tabled, which passed.
At the Valparaiso City Council’s Sept 22 meeting, the resolution was reintroduced by Pupillo with a few changes, including verbiage adding a reference to parochial schools “such as Immanuel Lutheran and St. Paul Catholic School.”
Pupillo also reminded the council that the council’s budget pays nearly half of the salaries of school resource officers, who have $75,000 annual salaries.
Hunt responded to Pupillo that the “ultimate decision” for the addition of a school resource officer is for the Valparaiso School Board to add the resolution as an item for their upcoming board meeting agenda.
Costas also warned of making the resolution too expansive when trying to enforce a financial commitment that school resource officers will be added to every school in the near future.
“By my count, with parochial schools, we have around 15 schools total, so this resolution talks to having eventually another 11 school resource officers hired, and that becomes a significant amount, adding about another $1.5 million to the budget, which may not be practical,” Costas said.
Valparaiso Community Schools Superintendent Jim McCall was in attendance at the Sept. 22 meeting to present the first reading of the school system’s proposed 2026-27 school budget.
When asked by both Pupillo and Hunt about whether the proposed budget included funds to support the addition of another school resource officer, McCall responded “yes,” but refused to commit to any action being taken.
“What council member Pupillo and myself are asking Dr. McCall is, the recommendation has been made and VCS has chosen not to implement it despite having room in the budget and we are still unclear why that is and we have an interest in understanding why VCS has not acted on the recommendation from the Valparaiso Police Department to add this additional officer,” Hunt asked to a silent reply.
“This is a question to you, Dr. McCall.”
McCall acknowledged the school administration has had meetings and a recommendation from Valparaiso Police regarding the addition of a fifth school resource officer.
“When I met with the Valparaiso Police chief, we agreed we are not there yet when looking at the data, but will continue to monitor this,” McCall said.
While Valparaiso Police Chief Andrew McIntyre did not attend the Sept. 22 meeting, Valparaiso Assistant Police Chief Mark LaMotte was in attendance, prompting Hunt to ask LaMotte if a fifth school resource officer was still being recommended.
“Yes,” LaMotte responded.
“We are still recommending the fifth SRO be added. However, I was not present in the meeting with Dr. McCall.”
Philip Potempa is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
