$200,000 Budget Standoff Leaves Waukegan High School Without Police Officers On Campus

WAUKEGAN, IL — Students at Waukegan High School returned to class Monday without the presence of school resource officers from the local police department due to a contract dispute between city and school district officials.

There is reportedly a $200,000 gap between the full cost of the officers and what the school district is willing to pay for two officers at the high school's Brookside and Washington campuses.

Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 Superintendent Theresa Plascencia said administrators have been unable to reach a "financially viable" agreement with the city.

Between 2016 and 2023, school district officials paid an average of just $70,000 a year for two school resource officers, or SROs, according the the superintendent.

But last year, the district paid nearly $121,000, with the school board opting for a one-year extension rather than a five-year contract.

"We understand that personnel costs are rising, and we are open to offsetting some of these increases for the City. This is why we are prepared to increase our payment to $150,000 for 2024-2025. As of yet, we have not received an official counteroffer from the City," Plascencia said Wednesday in a letter to the community.

"We believe that our district committing to a 24-percent increase is a fair offer, and we hope that the City will collaborate with us to ensure these highly valued officers can return to our schools as soon as possible," she said.

Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor told the Lake County News-Sun that the city has asked to be reimbursed for the full cost to the taxpayers who are paying the officers' paycheck, which comes out to $350,000.

“That’s the cost of salary and benefits,” Taylor said. “It’s firm. They don’t have to pay for liability insurance, workers’ comp, training or uniforms. People want more officers on the streets. This takes two officers off the streets for eight months of the year.”

According to Illinois State Board of Education data, there are nearly 4,300 students at Waukegan High School. Last year, there were more than 2,600 "discipline incidents" involving 920 students, more than 400 of which involved some sort of violence. There were also 236 incidents that resulted in out of school suspensions greater than three days.

The superintendent said she respects the valuable work of SROs and had hoped to keep them on campus. And she reassured the community that local schools will still have their own staff security guards and can still call the police in the event of an emergency — even without SROs on campus.

"As the school year begins," the superintendent said, "please rest assured that the absence of SROs does not compromise our schools' safety."