Editorial: Extra pay sounds siren

Thursday, May 6, 2004 | 9:02 a.m.

The 154 police officers employed by the Clark County School District received a total of $1.37 million in overtime pay last year. We agree with Walt Rulffes, the district's top financial officer, who said the amount is "a reason for serious concern."

School Police Chief Elliot Phelps acknowledged that overtime is excessive, but he also pointed out why it cannot now be avoided. "We've got to get this under control, but the question is how do we do that when the district is constantly building new schools and we're not increasing the size of our force?"

His question is a good one. Each of the district's high schools is assigned just two officers. Most of the 43 middle schools have just one officer assigned, while the 166 elementary schools have no officers permanently assigned. Another 25 officers are assigned to daytime patrol and the rest have supervisory responsibilities.

The school district, whose student enrollment is expected to top 280,000 in the fall, employs school monitors as well as police. It's considering boosting their training and their pay so they could assume some of the duties the police are now handling. The idea has merit -- providing the training is a top priority and the monitors have proper supervision. We also believe the district should study the idea of school police working just two shifts, instead of three. This would cut into overtime pay while maintaining the force's primary responsibility -- protecting the students and staff during school hours.

Ultimately, however, the district is going to have to find funds for more police officers. While paying overtime is a bit cheaper, fatigue becomes an issue when officers during many weeks are nearly doubling their regular hours. More than 30 new schools have opened in the last three years and 14 more are scheduled to open in August. As enrollment expands, the police force should expand proportionally.