To some parents, where Hooksett police officer Jason Defina spends his time is a matter of safety.

To some residents, it’s a matter of money and where it gets spent.

To school officials, it’s about keeping a valuable program running. And to Hooksett Police Chief Stephen Agrafiotis, it’s a choice between putting an officer into the schools or taking a detective off cases and slowing down investigations.

The issue? Retaining the school resource officer. And complicating the matter is the cost of a new sign for the Hooksett Safety Center with an alleged price tag of $33,000.

Cuts to the Police Department The school resource officer is a position both the Police Department and School Board have wanted in place since about 2000. While Agrafiotis planned to have an officer fill that role from about that time, he was constantly short on staff. Finally, in 2006, there were enough officers on staff and Linda Warhol became the first school resource officer in Hooksett.

“Now, we have 29 positions,” said Agrafiotis. “The default budget only covers 28 positions. We started with a budget that didn’t cover all the positions. We’ve looked at it and said the SRO is good, nice, but we need manpower on the road. I tried to leave an officer on day shift so he can spend some time, if possible, in the schools.”

Reaction has been vehement in letters to the editor to The Hooksett Banner.

“Officer Defina’s presence in the school is akin to fixing the broken window in the neighborhood before all the windows are broken and it becomes a slum,” wrote Stephen L’Heureux.

“Has the chief forgotten the numerous times that half his department was at Cawley School last year due to bomb threats?” wrote Miriam Martin. “Where is the chief’s priority? Why is he not concerned for our kids?”

“I don’t want the safety, security and peace of mind of my children sacrificed due to these games,” wrote Nancy Proulx.

Much as Agrafiotis favors the program, budget concerns force tough choices. Asked what he would have to cut if the school resource officer was reinstated full time, he said he would have to cut back on officers on the street or cut back the detective division, which would slow down investigations.

“We’re supposed to serve the whole community, not just a niche group,” he said.

The $33,000 sign Probably the most difficult part of the story for people to grasp is why so much money was spent on a new sign for the Hooksett Safety Center, now renamed for the late James Oliver, police chief of Hooksett for two decades. While the specific cost of the sign itself was unknown to Agrafiotis off the top of his head, he explained there was far more to the price than the sign itself.

He explained that it covered far more than the sign itself, including extensive work by PSNH.

“That money came from last year’s budget,” said Agrafiotis. After Oliver died in 2007, his widow toured the Hooksett Safety Center and noted many deficiencies in the building, he said. On April 17, the Hooksett Town Council voted to rename the center after Oliver, which began the process of finishing lighting, security cameras and more at the building. While the council did not have the money to spend on the deficiencies, the American Legion donated $500 to add Oliver’s name to the granite sign outside the building, and then the Police Department got approval to spend money left over from the budget ending in June.

“That was surplus money. July 1 started the new budget, a default budget. You can’t mix and match that money,” said Agrafiotis. “Now we’re operating on a default budget. It can’t legally be carried over for personnel.

That’s the encumbrances they talk about. The money can’t transfer to the next year. July 1 comes, you start with the new budget.”

Nevertheless, many question the wisdom of spending such an amount on any signs when there is a clear need for money for officer salaries.

“They don’t have enough money for this officer in our schools, yet they have plenty of funds to buy a new sign?” wrote Jamie Boucher.

At issue is that this particular $33,000 was not legally allowed to be spent in the following year’s budget.

“Money was left over because of unfilled positions, but that money had to stay in that year,” said Agrafiotis.

It’s one of those accounting and legal procedures that is confusing.

If you’ve got this money, most will reason, spend it where it is best used and needed. But it was not legally allowed to be used for an officer’s pay in the following budget year.

What does the officer do in school?
Though Hooksett schools are not rife with crime and in need of police presence, having a uniformed officer in the school buildings may prevent a violent crime or at least speed up the response to such an incident. That was never the goal of the school resource officer program.

“He’s provided support in social studies classrooms, discussions with students about law. He’s visible, he’s in the community, he’s in the schools,” said Cawley Middle School Principal Stephen Harrises. “He told me, with the change in schedule, he was on road yesterday, cutting through neighborhoods, kids come out and talk to him when raking lawns. It’s true community building.”

Discipline is sometimes the school resource officer’s role, but a minor part, said SAU 15 Superintendent Charles “Phil” Littlefield.

“The emphasis is on prevention, relationship building” he said. “Our kids are growing up in a far more complex world. Families are really stretched. This is support for kids, family and community.”

Now what?
For the time being, Defina is spending about four to eight hours a week in Hooksett’s schools. Pressure on Chief Agrafiotis may persuade him to change his priorities regarding the use of Defina’s time, but Hooksett residents should understand the choice they’re asking him to make. Do they want police on patrol on the streets, or in the schools? “That’s the consequence of the vote on the budget,” said Agrafiotis.

Corri Wilson hopes having an officer on the street will at least address other problems, thought she supports the school resource officer’s reinstatement.

“I find it troubling when day after day people drive their cars exceedingly fast on Joanne Drive while students are waiting for the bus,” she said. “Perhaps the Police Department can now post officer Defina in a squad car, something I have asked for several times and seen only very rarely in the more than nine years we’ve lived on this street.”