CAMDEN — Preble Shawnee’s Board of Education was supposed to approve three School Resource Officer contracts during a meeting on Thursday, June 28, but removed those items from the agenda to be approved during the July meeting. The school district had not received the contracts prior to the meeting.

On the agenda, it was recommended to approve the contract with the Camden Police Department for providing one School Resource Officer for the 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21 school years as presented.

It was also on the agenda to approve the contract with the Preble County Sheriff’s Department for providing two School Resource Officers for the 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21 school years as presented.

Those issues were not voted upon. Superintendent Matt Bishop explained, “We are deleting the SRO contracts [from the agenda]. We still need to get one [contract] from the Sheriff’s Department. Camden’s [contract] came late today. That can be approved during the July meeting.

“It is not going to stop them from going forward with the hiring process, because we already passed a resolution to add the SROs, this is just the formality of the contract. The Sheriff is in agreement, he just wants to make sure everything checks out before we move forward.”

Board member Julie Singleton brought her concerns to Bishop.“Do you have any concerns about not voting on any SROs tonight?” she asked. “Do we know that [Preble County Sheriff Mike Simpson] is moving on those?”

Bishop answered, “Yes. I imagine he will be hiring them as a block, I don’t think he would hire one and then trying to find the other. When I get the contract from him tomorrow, if he tells me this is impeding them from moving forward, then I can get with you guys and see if you want to hold a special meeting to approve the SRO contracts.”