Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School and Rochester Memorial Elementary School are interested in the possibility of having a student resource officer in their schools.

At Monday night's Selectmen meeting, Rochester Police Chief Paul Magee presented the idea of bringing an officer into the schools full time next year. He said the idea is in preliminary stages because he wanted to see if he could get support for it before moving ahead, but he has discussed it with the schools, which would be willing to foot the bill.

Old Colony would be willing to pick up $32,000 worth of the officer's salary, while Rochester Memorial would be willing to pay $13,000. Magee said the plan would be to have an experienced officer split his or her time between the schools, and then to hire a new officer to take that officer’s place.

The only other costs would be about $2,000 in equipment for training and an estimated long-term cost of about $8,300 per year for benefits, according to the chief.

Magee’s main goal behind this initiative is to bring more security and safety to the schools.

“We’re not exempt (from violence) anymore,” he said.

He also believes it is more beneficial to have one officer who is with the students in the schools on a regular basis than to have different officers bouncing around the schools as needed.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with the schools my entire police career, so I have vast experience in it and I can tell you the value is enormous,” Magee said. “I have solved numerous criminal cases based on things I learned when I was in the school system.”

Magee said both schools have a lot of interest in the idea so far, and he asked the Selectmen to mull the idea over before voting on it at a later meeting.