NEW CUMBERLAND — The Weirton police chief and Hancock County sheriff have written letters questioning potential cuts to the prevention resource officer program in Hancock County schools.

Police Chief Charlie Kush and Sheriff Scott Gittings said in letters sent to school Superintendent Walter Saunders and dated March 5 that a proposal that would see the possible removal of full-time PROs would leave just one to cover Weir Middle and Weirton Elementary schools and another to cover Oak Glen Middle and New Manchester Elementary schools.

Those moves could jeopardize the safety of pupils, they explained.

“A part-time PRO is not a good plan and leaves a large hole in four schools,” Gittings wrote. “Losing the full-time rover position is a significant loss to both Weirton Police and the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office, however, it is something that can be dealt with. Keeping part-time PROs at a school is a potentially dangerous situation.”

Kush shared similar thoughts.

“I believe that it is my duty to inform you that removing any full-time PRO from the schools is a mistake which will result in school safety being compromised,” he wrote. “Full-time PROs have daily contact with students and their presence deters violence. A PRO that is forced to provide part-time security may not be present to stop an active threat, which could have a catastrophic outcome. A PRO is trained to respond quickly to active threats and give critical real-time information to responding officers.”

Public schools in Weirton currently have PROs who are assigned through the city’s police department. Officers in the city are assigned to Weir High, Weir Middle and Weirton Elementary schools.

The sheriff’s department, meanwhile, has six PROs. Deputies are assigned to Oak Glen High and Oak Glen Middle schools; Allison and New Manchester elementary schools; the John D. Rockefeller IV Career Center; and a deputy known as the rover, who travels among schools as needed.

The proposed cuts are in response to the financial issues that are facing Hancock County schools. The district has been under state control since Jan. 16, when the West Virginia Department of Education took charge of the system after it was found to be millions of dollars in debt. Saunders was named to serve as superintendent.

He did not return phone calls seeking comment Tuesday afternoon.

A portion of the money to cover the cost of placing officers in the schools comes from a levy voters in Hancock County passed in 2022. That levy generates approximately $725,000 to provide safety and security services, including prevention, resource officers, security technology, entrance and exit doors and security enhancements and services.

” … Part of the passed school levy was to continue providing full-time PROs at each school,” Kush wrote. “I again understand that you are forced to make cuts in the budget, but it should not be at the cost of school safety. I believe that the parents of Hancock County students deserve to know that their children are safe and secure while they attend school.”

Gittings agreed that the levy money was to be used to help expand the PRO program, not to develop it or be its sole source of funding. At the time the levy was passed, he added, PROs already were in place in both high schools and middle schools. Thanks to the levy, he was able to place PROs in each elementary school, he explained.

“When the levy was placed on the ballot, the safety portion was pushed heavily, and in fact it is less than 20 percent of the levy,” the sheriff wrote.

“So, my point is that $700,000-plus was not for the entire PRO program, but was meant to add to it,” Gittings added.

Gittings already is facing a 15 percent reduction in his department’s budget as a result of cuts being sought by the Hancock County commissioners, and that’s on top of a 15 percent reduction the sheriff’s department was hit with last year.

“We can’t operate with another 15 percent,” Gittings explained during a March 6 budget workshop session.

In addition to providing enhanced safety at the schools, the resource officer program allows young people to build a relationship with local law enforcement officers, Hancock County Chief Deputy Todd Murray said during the March 6 meeting. Those connections have allowed deputies to identify instances where there might be issues in their homes, such as child abuse or neglect.

The impact of the PRO programs stretches beyond the school atmosphere, the sheriff explained.

Gittings said school-based officers were essential in the March 2024 raid of Phillies Quick Stop in Newell, which resulted in the arrests of two individuals who were charged with the sale of controlled substances to underage individuals.

“It was a big problem at Oak Glen High School,” Gittings said of the THC-infused vape products. “That was off information that came from the PROs.”

The Hancock County Board of Education is scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the Rockefeller career center.