The current Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Gladewater and Gladewater ISD on School Resource Officers was nearing its expiration date – the district proposed a revamped version Monday night.
Unanimously approved by the board with no discussion Sept. 21, the expanded agreement now heads to City of Gladewater officials for revisions, consideration and possible adoption next month.
With the existing MOU timing out Sept. 30, the school’s trustees also unanimously approved a one-month extension this week. That measure sets the end-date at Nov. 1 under the same terms (for the most part) while negotiations proceed on the latest iteration.
The item on the district’s monthly agenda to “consider MOU Gladewater PD” was split into two pieces during the meeting – the first to extend the 2025-2026 MOU on an interim basis.
“I had a conversation with Chief (Kyle) Ready. We agreed that would be a good step, to continue what we currently have,” GISD Supt. Rae Ann Patty reported, albeit with one key caveat: Sgt. Donald Willeford’s retirement leaves no SRO on the Gladewater Middle School campus.
Following the meeting, Patty said the GMS security will be covered by a new employee.
“Right now we are looking to hire a person to come in and be a Guardian/Marshal.”
On July 20, the board re-upped their ‘Good Cause Resolution’ from the Texas Association of School Board’s for the school’s Guardian program.
“The Good Cause Resolution really just protects us for the Guardian program for two things,” Patty told the trustees in two months back. “If we determine that the district does not have the funds to keep a licensed peace officer at every campus then we have this good cause exception in place that we could use our Guardian program. Also, it protects us if for some reason we had to change officers, and they are not considered a licensed peace officer.”
“Each year we have to renew that so we can revisit whether we feel like we have the money to continue with licensed peace officers or we need to implement the Guardian program.”
Notably, she told the school’s elected officials, this year’s resolution renewal was paired with a plan to extend the Guardian program on the campuses.
“We have some people that, even in addition to the officers, would like to be guardians,” Patty confirmed July 20. “Of course, none of that would be approved until they went through all of the information that we had to go through with the previous guardians then they would be brought to you for final approval.”