Armed Security Specialists Joining MPS
When students return to Madison Public Schools (MPS) on Monday, Aug. 29, four new armed security specialists will be there to greet them.
In a letter sent to parents earlier this month, Superintendent of Schools Craig Cooke announced that MPS is introducing a new position for the 2022-’23 school year with the goal of improving the safety and security of the schools. The new role, dubbed “Armed School Security Specialist,” will add four new hires to the security and safety force at MPS. As the job title suggests, those four new hires will be authorized to carry a firearm.
“This is something that has been in discussion for a while. Madison has had two SROs (School Resource Officers) for quite some time and that is something we were open to having more of,” Cooke said.
According to the letter Cooke sent to parents, SROs are members of the Madison Police force that have been assigned to work in the Madison Public Schools. They receive yearly training and have “always been armed.” SROs wear a standard Madison Police Department uniform. School Security Specialists, on the other hand, are MPS employees who are hired to provide security but do not carry a weapon. Instead of wearing a police uniform, these specialists wear a MPS security shirt.
The four new Armed School Security Specialists, according to Cooke, are retired local or state police officers who, by law, must be hired by the school district but are supervised by Police Chief Jack Drumm. These specialists receive yearly training as a SRO, but carry a weapon and wear a MPS shirt, cargo pants, and gun belt.
While all four of the new specialists are new to the job, Cooke said that they all currently work at or previously worked in the district.
“We are very fortunate to have been able to fill these positions with qualified individuals who are already well known to our students and staff,” Cooke said. “Every person filling these positions either currently works in our schools or previously worked in our schools”
Cooke added that the hiring and the planning were coordinated with the Madison Police Department (MPD) and with the goal of ensuring that any hires were high-caliber and trained.
““We have an excellent partnership with the Madison Police and they are incredibly supportive of everything we do. We renewed these discussions last year and Jack Drumm has been incredibly responsive, and so we started this discussion and talked about the possibility of having armed security at our schools. I certainly voiced the need that it would be people who are heavily trained in working at schools and had that experience. The Board of Ed also expressed that concerned.”
Armed officers joining the district include current School Resource Officers Jeff Twohill and Thomas Bull; retired MPD officer Bryan Baxter, and John Pardo and Jamie Del Mauro. Twohill and Bull will split one full-time position as two part-time specialists at Brown Elementary School, Ryerson Elementary School, and the Town Campus Learning Center. Baxter, a former MPS employee, will rejoin the district at Jeffrey Elementary School and Polson Elementary School. Pardo and Del Maruo, both former police officers and existing MPS employees will join staff at Daniel Hand High School. Pardo is a former Youth Officer for MPD, and Del Mauro formerly supervised SROs.
“This plan came together probably better than I had anticipated. The end result, I think, is better than I had even hoped at the beginning of the discussion,” Cooke said. “I am thrilled with how it’s turned out, in that these people are well known to our community, they are trained, and are recently retired from the force. These folks are very committed to our students and want to work at our schools and energized by it.”
Cooke noted that he had received feedback from parents who had concerns about armed personnel but said that one of his responsibilities as superintendent is to inform and ensure that parents receive complete information about these measures.
“I think that when parents see this in place, they will feel comfortable with it. It is only one piece of how we will keep our schools safer,” he said. “We have done major work at Polson and Brown’s front entrances to make them safer. The other piece is the social emotional piece for them and supporting their safety. There is a lot of work still to be done, but we’ve also done a lot of great work, and I feel that that once parents see that in action they will be relieved and alleviate most of their concerns.”