The Clarkston school district is looking to find a way to cover cost increases for school safety handed down from Oakland County in 2024.

At a special meeting on Monday night, Superintendent Shawn Ryan updated the board and the public on where the district stands with the county, Independence Township and the increased cost for resource officers in the district.

Clarkston has four student resource officers from the Oakland County Sheriff’s department, one each at Clarkston High School, Clarkston Junior High and Sashabaw Middle School, and one responsible for seven elementary schools.

The district pays 50% of the cost for all officers during the school year, while Independence Township covers the other half for three officers and Springfield Township pays half for the fourth.

“We feel strongly that they are the centerpiece of our safety and security program,” said Ryan. “They are an integral part of our team.”

Last November, the county commission approved 2025-27 rates for contracted services from the sheriff’s office.

The approval resulted in an average cost increase of 15.2% in the first year of each contract, followed by 9% increases in the second and third years.

On Feb. 4 Independence Township approved a three-year contract to continue public safety coverage by the sheriff’s department, which township Supervisor Chuck Phyle said will result in a budget impact of over $1.3 million.

Because of the increase, the township is asking Clarkston to take on a larger portion of the cost of the school officers.

John Lucido, assistant superintendent of administrative services, said the cost to the district is $630,000 annually and estimated the cost will rise to $750,000.

“It is a significant increased cost to both of our townships that we are partnering with right now,” said Lucido.

“I believe we can work out a solution, but this is a major hit,” said Phyle of Independence Township. “I think the next 12 months is going to be challenging at best, painful most likely. From there on we have to look at alternative options.”

He added, “We are looking at a $1.5 to $1.8 million dollar cost on the SRO’s (over three years). It’s huge across the board. We did not have the funds and we did not anticipate it.”

At the Feb. 10 school board meeting Phyle answered questions regarding the increase. He said the township is locked into a three-year public safety mileage passed in 2023 and could not ask voters for an increase to cover the new contract.

“At this time we are in the process of looking at portions that could still be paid for by the township and paid by Clarkston community schools,” said Ryan.

Ryan has had discussions with Phyle, but is looking to sit down with County Board of Commissioners Chairman David Woodward to clarify what the cost increases mean to school districts.

“My hope is they will restructure these increases or look at other areas besides safety and security,” Ryan said of the commissioners’ decision.

“If there is no relief, the district may be faced with choosing between keeping first or secondary teachers or student safety. I can’t tolerate either one of those things,” he said.

Ryan introduced the issue at the school board’s Feb. 10 meeting and several board members offered their opinions on the proposed cost increase.

“I’d be hard pressed to go to my constituency here in the district and say, ‘I’m sorry we have to raise class sizes because we don’t have a way to pay for these police officers that we need to keep your kids safe.’ That’s not a choice as a board member I’m really willing to make,” Trustee Steve Hyer said. “I’m not putting safety or education, one before the other.”

Mary Beth Rogers, executive director of business services, gave an overview of the history of how the district has paid for safety officers.

Clarkston paid $30,000 per year for three years — 15% of the total cost — starting in the 2015-16 school year. The current 50% rate began in 2018-19. This is the first year of a safety officer from Springfield Township.

“It would be very, very hard and challenging for me to decide I am going to pay more for a school resource officer than I am going to pay more to educate my student and that is the bottom line for me,” said Secretary Cheryl McGinnis.

The sheriff’s department also has safety officers assigned in multiple school districts including Brandon, Walled Lake, Oxford, South Lyon and Rochester.

“The students build relationships with these officers and they have a real sense of safety and security,” said Clarkston Vice President Stephanie Crane. “I hope we can work something out with the dollar commitment that we are going to make without impacting our kids in our classrooms.”

“My recommendation to our school board at the end of the day is that I intend to make sure that we never have a day while I am superintendent here that we do not have those resource officers in our buildings,” said Ryan. “But I do believe Clarkston schools needs to step up to some degree on this offset of this enormous increase that has been put on the townships.”