ORANGE — The Selectboard this week agreed to a contract requiring the Police Department’s two new student officers to pay back the tuition that the town is fronting to put them through the state’s full-time police academy.
Gracin Bisceglia and Bradley Jacques were hired in January to fill vacancies the Orange Police Department had had since the fall. Police Chief James Sullivan told Selectboard members that the contract articulates their salaries and academy tuition reimbursement.
“They are student officers right now; they are not police officers. They have to go through the full-time police academy before they can do that,” he said on Wednesday evening. “And they started the full-time police academy [in Holyoke] last Monday, so this is their second week of getting yelled at and doing push-ups.”
He explained the academy’s tuition is $3,200 per student officer. The student officers must reimburse the department all the tuition, but not equipment costs. Sullivan explained the reimbursement rate equates to about $41 taken out of a biweekly paycheck for three years.
“They can pay it off any time early, if they wanted to,” he noted.
Officers must still repay the money if they leave the department, unless the departure is due to an injury sustained in the line of duty.
“The department is on the hook, basically, for all their equipment and gear to go to the academy. That’s actually the far more expensive issue,” Sullivan said. “They not only have to get all the gear that the academy requires, but they also require being set up as police officers, with bulletproof vests and duty belts and all that stuff.”
The chief said he is excited to work with the two men. He noted that Bisceglia is the son of longtime Officer Christopher Bisceglia.
“He’s a young kid. He’s really excited, he’s really motivated. It’s kind of fun to watch him,” Sullivan said.
He said Jacques is slightly older than Bisceglia but equally as motivated.
“He grew up in Athol, so he’s local as well,” Sullivan said.
The two student officers will be sworn in by Town Clerk Rachael Fortier once they graduate from the academy, which lasts about 26 weeks.
Responding to a question from new Selectboard Vice Chair Reid Jeffries Anderson, who attended the meeting remotely, Sullivan said this is a rare occurrence for his department.
“We haven’t experienced attrition in a long time here in Orange. We generally hold onto our police officers for a long time,” he said.
The police chief explained that Officer Jungfil Seo left to become a security manager for LG Energy Solution Arizona and Officer Sydney Richardson took her passion for fighting crimes against animals to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA).
Sullivan said Bisceglia and Jacques will come away from the academy certified by the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission and will be assigned field-training officers. He noted the younger Bisceglia will not be paired with his father.
“The entire department’s going to be their mentor,” he said, “but they will be assigned field-training officers.”