The Champaign Unit 4 school board recently voted 6-1 to re-enlist two school resource officers for the next year.
The Champaign Police school resource officers have been serving the Champaign Unit 4 School District since 2006, as per guidelines implemented by the National Association of School Resource Officers.
The goal of the School Resource Officer program is to provide safer learning environments and resources to students and staff members to create a congenial environment for the success of students.
Elizabeth Sotiropoulos, member of the Unit 4 Board of Education, was the only board member to vote against the contract and cited the lack of an actual plan for restorative justice as one of the reasons for doing so.
“This district’s administrative decisions continue to marginalize the students of this district,” Sotiropoulos said in her board comment. “I am voting no on this contract, because you could have — and should have — done better.”
Many other board members that voted for the renewal of the contract also wanted to see the eventual end of the program but argued at a board meeting April 12 that the program is currently still necessary.
“We’ve asked for better control over their movement and have been given that,” said Bruce Brown, member of Unit 4 of Education. “I look forward to the day that we don’t need (a School Resource Officer), but I know that we’re not there yet in our community.”
Brown pushed for anti-racism training for SRO’s, similar to what teachers go through, and added that they should be aware and sensitized regarding the environment that they are working in. Local activists also spoke in the meeting and urged for the removal of the officers.
“As students, we reach out in solidarity to the teachers and the students that are actively fighting for SRO’s to be removed,” Drake Materre, community activist, said in the meeting.
Many parents present in the meeting also expressed their concerns over SRO’s and mentioned that their children should not have to be re-traumatized by the presence of SRO’s that bear resemblance to the officers that patrol the streets.
The full recurring costs of re-enlisting two school resources officers is $349,611 for the next year, according to the amendment. The renewal of the program will begin on July 1 and will end on June 30, 2022.

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