At Tuesday’s meeting of the Tyrone Area School District Board of Directors, the board will consider the resignation request of Mark Frailey as the district’s chief of police.
“We have received his resignation and it will be considered by the board,” said Dr. William Miller, superintendent of Tyrone schools. “Beyond that, I can’t comment on a personnel issue.”
The school hired Frailey in August of 2000 when the school board decided to provide its own security for the school district.
The school police department was funded under the Safe Schools, Healthy Students grant and Miller told The Daily Herald, “I’m not sure if we are going to replace the chief.”
“The grant was projected to pay for the police department and we will divert that money to fund other programs we have ongoing in the district,” said Miller. “This is not a money issue. After three years, we need to re-evaluate the responsibility of the school police and the needs of the program.”
The Safe Schools, Healthy Students grant that funds the Tyrone School District Police is to run out following the 2003-04 school year.
“We don’t feel that the need is as critical at the high school as we first thought,” said Miller. “We as a district need to go through a period of self reflection and re-evaluation.”
The current staff of one full-time policeman, one full-time security officer and one part-time security officer will stay in place.
“We don’t see the elimination of the department,” said Miller. “This is all for the board to consider in the coming months.”