With plans to post local police in schools on hold, Jim Thorpe Area School District has contracted with a private security company.

The district still plans to use local police as needed for sporting events.

On Wednesday, school board members approved a contract with County Security, as well as separate contracts with the police departments in Jim Thorpe Borough and Kidder Township.

“I don’t want to ever feel like we can’t go to our local police to use them, but at this point we would use the security service,” said John Rushefski, superintendent of Jim Thorpe Area School District.

County Security has agreed to provide armed and/or unarmed guards as needed during school hours and afterschool events. The rate for armed guards is $26.50 ($39.75 on holidays, and the rate for unarmed guards is $18.50 per hour.

The cost to have local police at sporting events is $78.62 per hour for Jim Thorpe Police Department, and $56.69 per hour for Kidder Township.

Board member Dennis McGinley said he believes the school should utilize officers from the local police departments as school resource officers.

“Tamaqua is with Tamaqua, Lehighton is with Lehighton, Weatherly is with Weatherly, why can’t Jim Thorpe come along with Jim Thorpe? I know two police officers that would love to have that job,” McGinley said.

In February, the board voted to post officers from the two departments in the three district schools. The district agreed to pay Jim Thorpe $22 per hour, and Kidder $21.40 per hour.

But the district’s Director of Security, Lori Lienhard, said Wednesday that the departments were unable to provide officers at that rate.

“Unless they hire a full-time officer and there is an agreement between them and the district to pay the salaries, they can’t do it,” Lienhard said.

Other business

In other business, the board approved a contract with Klacik & Associates as school district auditors at a cost of $17,750 per year.

• The board agreed to a contract with Lehigh Valley Health Network to provide quarantine room health professionals, who will help isolate children if they show COVID-19 symptoms during daily screenings.

• The board approved a new policy on livestream video and an updated policy on child/student abuse

• The board voted to donate its old stadium lights to Penn Forest Township. The lights are being replaced as part of the ongoing stadium project.

• The board voted to allow teachers to teach remote learning classes from home on Fridays, when all students are enrolled in remote learning, in order to allow for custodians to conduct deep cleaning.