Urbana SRO Expansion and Tree Grant

This post includes updates on the Student Resource Officer (SRO) program expansion in Urbana Schools and a recent tree replacement grant. Last night the Urbana City Council (agenda here, video here) had to push their decision to expand SROs in Urbana schools off to their next meeting after the meeting went four hours long. From the News-Gazette website last night / early this morning:

Updated: Urbana residents push back on officer proposal
...
After more than four hours, the city council forwarded the agreement to next week's meeting, when they can continue discussing and amending the 17-page agreement.

They already made one amendment to add an annual stakeholder review of the program, ensuring that the Urbana school board will get another vote on the amended agreement if the city council passes it...

The two officers would be an increase from the single part-time officer that’s historically been there, but the agreement would formalize a situation that’s already somewhat in place this school year.

The city had given its part-time officer more time last school year to spend in the schools after the district eliminated its deans in the spring of 2018, Urbana Police Chief Bryant Seraphin told the school board in October.

Full article with a lot of additional information here. The District 116 school board meeting that initially sent the proposal to the City Council for approval was also contentious. The News-Gazette article also noted it was similarly long meeting. WCCU had a brief overview and video segment here. WILL had a more detailed article and radio segment available here. Excerpts:

Urbana High School associate principal, Julie Blixen, also spoke in favor of more school resource officers, saying they “are more than just people with guns in our schools. They are there to be that safe person when someone needs something.”

But many community members and parents spoke out against the measure, citing research that finds that the presence of school resource officers doesn’t necessarily lead to safer schools, as well as racial disparities in discipline and arrests.

“I’m not for the school to prison pipeline,” Linda Reynolds told the board. “I’ve seen a lot of smart, intelligent kids lost and left behind. It’s not right. All kids deserve an education.”
...
Chief Seraphin addressed the school to prison pipeline concern. He said no Urbana student had ever been sentenced to the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice or Department of Corrections as a result an arrest made by a school resource officer over the last five and a half years.

Board president John Dimit defended the police department.

“I just frankly don’t buy that the Urbana police department has been a part of (the school to prison pipeline). I don’t think they ever have and ever will be,” he said.

That full WILL article with even more information is available here. There was also a lot of coverage on the Morton Arboretum's gift towards replacing trees damaged by a recent tornado. The City Council approved the grant funding at last night's city council (as part of the omnibus budget bill here. The original standalone resolution is available here). The News-Gazette had a lot of background on the donation and the damage it will help address last week:

After a tornado hit southwest Urbana in May, the city said it would need $22,000 to replace the 64 city-owned trees that were destroyed.

A $14,250 grant from the Morton Arboretum near Chicago will help Urbana do that...

In October, Urbana reached out to the community for donations to replace the trees destroyed by the F-1 tornado...

In addition to the tornado, the city has been working for more than a decade to remove trees killed by the emerald ash borer.

That’s been completed, Mitten said, but it now has 289 stumps to replace. The grant will help reduce its three-year backlog on planting to 18 months, she said.

Full article here. WCCU had a quick blurb on the provision passing at the Urbana City Council last night here.