Even with the elimination of the school resource officer from Westbrook Middle School, it appears that there will be an increased police presence in Westbrook’s schools next year.

And the best part? The new plan won’t add a dime to the school budget.

At the Westbrook School Committee meeting on Wednesday night, held after the American Journal’s deadline, Westbrook School Superintendent Marc Gousse planned to introduce a proposal that would establish drop-in office spaces in the city’s elementary and middle schools, allowing officers on patrol to come into the school while on duty, have a place to do paperwork and start to build relationships with the younger students.

There will still be a resource officer at the high school, and, Gousse said the plan was a way to make sure that the police had a presence in the schools without incurring the expense of a second resource officer for the middle school.

“We want the police in the schools, establishing relationships,” Gousse said. “What I’m trying to do is listen to both sides of the issue and come up with a solution that’s cost-effective. At the end of the day, I’m very comfortable (with the new plan).”

The proposal diffuses an effort by at least one concerned Westbrook parent to keep the second resource officer at the middle school.

Ray Richardson was advocating to restore the money for the second school resource officer in the budget. The money for both school resource officers was originally removed from the budget in favor of a second vice principal at both the high and middle schools. But, after hearing there was public sentiment to keep a resource officer at the high school, Gousse said the School Committee put the money for the high school officer back in. The cost of the resource officer is split between the school department and the city, with both sides paying $32,500 toward the $65,000 total.

The $31 million school budget was given preliminary approval from the School Committee last week. After a second vote scheduled for April 11 (after the American Journal’s deadline), the budget will be sent on to the City Council for approval. Once the council approves the budget, the public will vote in June.

School Committee Chairman Ed Symbol said that the committee and the administration decided that the school department’s needs were better met by adding assistant principals at both the high and middle schools, giving each school two.

“We felt that an educator was more valuable (at the middle school) than having the resource officer,” Symbol said. “And hopefully (having the new assistant principal) is going to take care of some of the issues.”

Bruce Dyer, who works at the high school as a substance abuse counselor, agrees that having a second administrator at both schools will be valuable.

“Obviously school safety is paramount in our concerns,” Dyer said. “We feel that the assistant principal is going to give us what we need.”

But Richardson, who said he was worried about drugs and incidents of violence in the schools, continued to argue for a larger police presence as the School Committee finalized its budget.

“We need an additional resource in the schools that should trouble present itself, we can respond to that trouble,” he said.

After learning of the new plan, Richardson said Tuesday he felt his concerns were being met and he would stop his effort to restore the second resource officer.

“I think it’s a brilliant solution,” Richardson said. “It’s better than two resource officers.”

“It creates a relationship between the kids and the police,” he continued. “For anyone contemplating causing trouble (at the schools), they just don’t know when an officer is going to be in the building.”

The new plan came about during a meeting between Gousse, Symbol and Public Safety Director Mike Pardue on Tuesday morning. Symbol said that Pardue proposed the idea of having the office space in the school to allow police to “have a face and a presence there so people can walk by and talk to them.”

Symbol said he was immediately on board with the concept.

“I think it’s a great idea and it takes the community policing idea to a whole other level,” he said.

“We may in fact, have more of a (police) presence with this model,” Gousse added.

For his part, Pardue said while he would prefer to have two resource officers in the schools, he tried to look for a way to have more police in the schools that would be acceptable for both the schools and the police department.

“We’re trying to think outside the box a little bit,” Pardue said. “Recognizing that it’s a very challenging economic time for everybody, and at the same time, balancing that with our needs on the street.”

Pardue said he believes it’s important students, especially the younger ones, have positive interactions with officers.

“I really feel as though in grades K-8 what’s really important is that law enforcement develops a relationship with our students,” Pardue said. “I think it’s paramount that we build those bridges at early ages, and this gives us the opportunity to do that. I think in the long run, there will be dividends that we will see.”

And the hope is that one of those dividends will be safer schools.

Westbrook High School Principal Tom O’Malley said that he takes any incident, whether it involves drugs or alcohol or fighting among students, very seriously, adding that he feels his job is to maintain “a safe and orderly environment” at the school and that the administration treats any incidents of drugs or violence very severely.

Pardue said that the impression that there has been a hike in the number of problems at the high school could be coming because the police and the school department are increasing enforcement there and catching more things before they blow up into big problems.

While there has been talk about increased numbers of incidents at the high school, no one would give concrete examples regarding the nature of those incidents.

“I think we’ve seen an increase in some of the more serious calls for service,” Pardue said. “I believe that we are paying very close attention to the schools. We have very active resource officers who have a good handle on the activities that are going on. Through that attentiveness, combined with a fairly aggressive approach in concert with the school administration, many of the items that may have gone unnoticed or unresponded to in prior years are being addressed in the early stages with the intent of thwarting things before they escalate into more serious events.”

Both Symbol and Dyer said that Ryan Close, the resource officer at the high school, has played a big part in making the school as safe as it can be.

“Ryan Close has done an awesome job,” Dyer said. “He’s built relationships with kids, he’s built an environment of trust and kids feel confident in being able to have a conversation with him.”

Symbol added that he believed any increase in calls to the high school is a result of Close’s work to stop problems before they get out of control.

“I think Ryan does a great job up there,” Symbol said. “There are probably more incidents because he’s actually holding people accountable.”

Gousse said he was pleased that the schools and the police were able to find a cost-effective way to make sure that Westbrook’s students will benefit from having police officers as a regular part of their schools.

“We’ve got a great partnership with the police department,” he said. “We’re going to keep working together.”