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PLEASANT GROVE, Utah (AP) -- Settling their monetary dispute, the city and the Alpine School District have agreed that the city will remove its two resource officers at Oak Canyon and Pleasant Grove junior highs but continue to provide an officer for Pleasant Grove High School through the end of the school year.
At issue was how the much the district would reimburse the city for providing the officers in the wake of a drop in federal funds.
"A mutual agreement was reached and we will continue to do what is needed to work with our cities," said Rob Smith of the school district.
Mayor Michael Daniels said Smith told him Monday evening that the district would allocate an additional $19,000 to cover costs of keeping an officer at the high school.
Another $33,000 would have been needed to cover the salaries and benefits of the officers at the junior highs.
"We worked it out so that the school resource officer will remain at the high school," said Daniels. "It is now our job as a city to bridge the gap and cover the two junior high schools. We need to sit down and see if there is anything that we can do."
Although there are needs at the junior high schools, the need for an officer at the high school level was just more critical, said Jerrilyn Mortensen, district spokeswoman.
For the past three years, the city has been able to assign the three officers to the schools, paying their salaries through a combination of city budget resources, grant funding and a small subsidy from the district, City Manager Frank Mills said.
While the district and Pleasant Grove covered the costs of the high school officer, the costs for the junior high school officers were mainly covered by a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Daniels said city officials will sit down with district officials in coming months and renegotiate the financial terms for the next school year.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
