NORTHFIELD – The Northfield Selectboard appointed William “Bill” Kimball as the new, hybrid school resource officer for the Pioneer Valley Regional School Tuesday following discussions with the district school committee and administration.
Due to the hybrid schedule of the district amid COVID-19, Superintendent Jonathan Scagel said the district and the Northfield Police Department decided to implement a “hybrid” school resource officer position to be at the school on a part-time basis.
Kimball has nine years of law enforcement experience with the Northfield Police Department, and he works as a part-time officer in the town of Gill, where he resides. Kimball is also a full-time EMT and firefighter with the Greenfield Fire Department.
“All together, I probably work the same amount of hours as having a full-time job as a police officer and a full-time job as a firefighter,” Kimball said, speaking to the School Committee last Thursday. “But I enjoy every bit of it.”
He said he leads the fire safety program for Greenfield schools. He said education runs in his family, as his grandmother was a teacher and his mother is set to retire as a teacher at the end of the year.
“I like reaching out to help in anyway possible,” Kimball said. “Community policing is a big focus of mine. I like meeting people, going in and just making relationships to help better the communication between law enforcement and the community.”
Speaking to the Selectboard Tuesday, Northfield Police Chief Robert Leigthon said the town had requested resident support for a school resource officer during a Town Meeting in 2014 and received “overwhelming support for it” at that time. The Northfield Police Department then placed an officer in the position for a handful of years before the school decided it wanted to switch to a “security monitor” position, which was in place for the past few years. Leighton said he met with Superintendent Scagel this past spring to discuss reinstating a school resource officer at Pioneer.
“We originally wanted to implement the program in September, but with the issues that had come up with the pandemic it was delayed,” Leighton said. “And because of the remote learning and uncertainty of how the school year was going to progress, it wasn’t until just a few weeks ago that we decided to implement our own hybrid SRO program.”
The hybrid position will see Kimball working at the school a few times a week. Leighton said he recommended Kimball based on his experience, which includes leading the fire safety curriculum through the Greenfield Fire Department.
“Billy Kimball is probably one of the best people I could say would be put in that position,” said Selectboard member Heath Cumming, who has law enforcement experience, and previously worked as the school resource officer for Pioneer.
During this past Thursday’s School Committee meeting, members voted unanimously to accept a memorandum of understanding between the school and Northfield, and instate the hybrid school resource officer position for the remainder of the school year. The Selectboard approved the memorandum Tuesday. Northfield’s cost for funding the position is already included in Northfield’s budget, Town Administrator Andrea Llamas explained. The other half of the cost for the position is to be paid by the school.
Come the spring, Leighton said they would work toward filling the position with a full-time school resource officer for the 2021-2022 school year. He said he spoke with Kimball about this, and they expressed potential interest in continuing in the position once it became a full-time duty again.
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-930-4579.