Mars Area school board decides to buy police vehicle
ADAMS TWP — Mars Area School District is moving forward with the purchase of a police car for additional security at a price tag of up to $30,000.
The school board approved the decision earlier this week in a 7-2 vote, making a move that Mars Area’s safety and security director Jeff James says will make the schools safer and cut down response time to incidents.
The decision comes amid a dispute with the teachers’ union and one year after the school district severed its contract with Adams Township Police Department, replacing a police force formed in 2019 with a full-time head of security.
“We’re not going to be a roving police force,” said James when giving a presentation to the board on why he believes a police car is an important acquisition for the district. “That is not what it's about.”
The car will not aid in writing any tickets or car chases, he said, but act as an asset toward threat prevention.
He listed several statistics related to school shootings, and said security measures that are not just present, but clearly visible, are a strong deterrent to such incidents.
“When we talk about having a police car out there, yeah, it’s absolutely noticed by the bad guys,” said James. He noted the 2023 shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, in which the shooter had considered multiple schools before picking one that had the least visible security.
Additionally, security personnel’s ability to control the traffic flow or slow down drivers on nearby roads during major events is enhanced by the presence of a police vehicle instead of a personal vehicle, he said.
He also pointed out that if he gets a security call from one of the district schools he is not present at, he will be slowed down by traffic rules; with a police vehicle, he said he can bypass those, and can respond more quickly.
Prior to James’ presentation, one public comment referred to the police car as a “low cost, high impact solution.”
Policy and procedure relating to the use of the car will be developed after its approval.
It was at the end of the district’s meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 18, that the school board brought the vehicle purchase back up for discussion. At the Aug. 11 meeting, the matter had been tabled by the board due to insufficient information and two absent board members.
In the 7-2 vote that played out Tuesday, board members Mike Bordt and Joseph Joswiak voted against the decision. They also separately voted against bringing the subject back to the board for discussion.
With the district’s impasse in contract negotiations with the Mars Area Education Association, there was a back and forth about the police car purchase, considering the contract dispute.
“I'm not going to get into a public debate over safety and security because that should never happen, but what I will say is there's a lot more important areas in this district that we could spend this money on,” Bordt said.
Board member Justin Miller said the cost of purchase is a small amount within the budget.
“It would be a drop in the bucket, really,” he said.
Board member Aaron Rose said, while he voted in favor of the purchase, the same effort, if applied toward the teachers’ contract, would have resolved the issue already.
Anthony DePretis, board treasurer, voiced his disagreement with Rose’s comments and said the matter of safety is separate from that of the contract dispute.
“I’m considering it based on what I feel is right, and that's it. The teachers’ contract really has nothing to do with this,” DePretis said.
“I don't know if you could put too much more above safety, security. This is something that should be on top of everybody’s list,” John Kennedy, board president, said.
