GILROY
– As Santa Clara County Supervisors prepare to finalize massive
across-the-board cuts aimed at sewing the county’s $160 million
budget hole, South County’s school resource officer is planning for
his last day on the job.
GILROY – As Santa Clara County Supervisors prepare to finalize massive across-the-board cuts aimed at sewing the county’s $160 million budget hole, South County’s school resource officer is planning for his last day on the job.
Sheriff’s Deputy Dennis Owens’ position as a school resource officer for South County Community School in San Martin and Martin Murphy Junior High in south San Jose will be terminated on Friday, the last day of the school year. Owens will stay on with the Sheriff’s office, but will likely spend his future days monitoring a metal detector at a county courthouse instead of instilling real-life lessons in local youth.
Owens is just one of at least three school resource officers throughout the county that are being forced to trade their jobs at county-run schools for a either a courthouse chair, a sheriff station desk or a patrol car come the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
And although the Sheriff’s Department recently announced it had found a way to save 34 of the department’s 81 positions proposed to be chopped by the budget ax, Owens said it could be county students paying the price for the cuts.
“When I first got the schools’ position, I was a bit weary because I enjoyed the action of being on patrol,” said Owens, a nine-year Sheriff’s veteran who spent the last year commuting between South County Community School and Martin Murphy Junior High to educate students on myriad criminal justice issues and serve as a crime deterrent for the schools.
“But after being here a year, I can honestly say that I wouldn’t trade this interaction with the students for the street. I realize patrol is the primary function of the Sheriff, but I still believe as a school resource officer I can get to the problem before it’s created.”
Serving as a second-chance school for students expelled from Gilroy and Morgan Hill schools, South County Community School gives seventh- through 12th-graders an education while waiting to return to their original schools.
Owens spends his days at the school talking to students and teachers about various aspects of the law – such as drug abuse and graffiti laws – and sometimes works with teachers to include real-life law enforcement issues into lesson plans.
“This is one of the few opportunities these kids have to see a law enforcement officer in a positive light,” said Sylvia Hamilton, president of the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance and a former teacher at Martin Murphy Junior High. “From my experience, I know the school officers make a difference, both in keeping kids at a crossroads on the right path and deterring campus crime. It’s a shame (the Board of Supervisors) has decided to take these officers away.”
Along with Owens, two other South County Sheriff’s positions are also scheduled to be paralyzed by plans to trim $8 million from the Sheriff’s $83 million budget, according to Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Terrance Helm.
South County’s rural deputy position and its fish and game warden will be condensed to one title, and one of its two plain-clothes deputy positions will be chopped, Helm said.
All nine of the full-time deputies currently headquartered at the South County sub-station in San Martin will keep their jobs, but recent positions open due to retirement along with some upcoming retired positions will not be filled in the future, Helm said.
No patrol units in South County will be lost with the budget cuts.
Throughout the county, 47 badged and non-badged members of the 550-badged unit of the Sheriff’s Department will lose their jobs come July 1, although the cuts have focused on programs instead of personnel, Helm said.
“We’ve had plenty of calls from people in South County worried about all of the cuts, including the school resource officers,” said John Gibbs, chief of staff to County District 1 Supervisor Don Gage. “But unfortunately at times like these we have to prioritize, and patrolling the streets is our first priority, so that’s where our resources are going to be aimed instead of special programs.”
County Supervisors will discuss cuts to the County Sheriff’s Department at 1:30 p.m. on June 18 at the county headquarters, 70 W. Hedding St. in San Jose.
