New school police deal under review in South San Francisco

No decision was made because administrators at each agency are refining specific details with hopes of ultimately crafting an agreement both sides find suitable for adoption. But the effort to adopt a memorandum of understanding marks a more formal approach to the program, which has drawn community criticism over the last year.

“This is an important conversation to have and I’m glad we are talking about it,” said Vice Mayor Mark Nagales, who expressed his appreciation to staffs from both agencies collaborating on the initiative, as well as community members for sharing their thoughts.

The discussion arrived after a decision by school district officials in March to preserve the arrangement placing two police officers on local campuses, despite calls from social justice advocates to dissolve the program.

Under the decision, school officials agreed to negotiate a memorandum of understanding that defines the roles and duties of officers when they are on district campuses. The signed document will clarify the vagueness left by a verbal agreement between the two agencies that formed the program three decades ago.

Police Chief Jeff Azzopardi, who is working with school district administrators to craft the memorandum, said he expects the formalized agreement will require new approaches from educators as well as police.

“Both sides are going to have to change the way we do this,” he said.

To that end, the memorandum details boundaries for officers investigating potential crimes or hazards on school campuses. It requires officials to contact administrators prior to performing searches and disallows students questioning without a parent or guardian present.

Additionally, the proposed agreement attempts to discourage students from being arrested at school, requires administrators to be consulted prior to arrest and mandates that parents or guardians are notified.

It also aims to differentiate between school discipline issues suitable for district personnel to resolve and potential criminal incidents that require police intervention.

For his part, Azzopardi said the new regulations could require police officers to alter their approach to responding to issues at schools. But similarly, he suggested that school officials should revise their expectations regarding how frequently officers are called to campuses.

“There is only so far we can go from our side,” Azzopardi said, who noted that in the past two years there have been only two incidents of someone leaving a campus in handcuffs — one a student and the other a teacher.

The police department funds the program, and city officials said they plan to continue financing its operation. But if school officials determine that specialized training is needed to better equip officers for interacting with students, the agreement shifts that financial obligation to the district.

Such a proposal riled members of Change SSF, a progressive political action group which staunchly opposes the school officer program due to concerns that it fuels the school to prison pipeline and grants police a change to surveil students.

Rather than further financially burden a district that frequently fields calls for higher teacher salaries, Change SSF representatives called to dissolve the program and allocate those resources into other student support services.

City Manager Mike Futrell said officials are still committed to funding the program and training officers, but included the term regarding specialized training finances to protect the city financially.

“We don’t want the district to come with a long list of training and expect the city to pay for it,” he said.

With an understanding that more work on the proposal is required, officials appreciated the groundwork laid and hoped that a formal agreement could be reached in advance of school starting in August.

“This is a starting point,” school board President Daina Lujan said.

In other business, the two sides proposed renaming the Community Learning Center in South San Francisco after former assemblymember Gene Mullin. Mullin, who died in April, was a teacher in the district for 30 years and also a former mayor and councilmember.

Mayor Mark Addiego lauded the proposal, noting that renaming the center offering programs benefiting both the city and school district would appropriately memorialize the educator and city official.

“He was a special bridge between education and government,” Addiego said.

austin@smdailyjournal.com