All four kindergarten to eighth-grade schools in the Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District now have at least one school resource officer or school safety officer since the program was started three years ago.
The newest additions this year were Cottonwood Community School and Oak Creek School in Cornville.
COCSD Superintendent Jessica Vocca said that Dr. Daniel Bright and Mountain View Preparatory have school resource officers while CCS and OCS have school safety officers, the difference being that SROs are permanently assigned to a school campus, while SSOs are off-duty police or YCSO deputies assigned to a school for a day on a non-permanent basis.
Dr. Daniel Bright and Oak Creek School are outside Cottonwood city limits and covered by the Yavapai County Sheriff ’s Office, while Mountain View Preparatory and Cottonwood Community School’s officers come from the ranks of the Cottonwood Police Department. Dr. Daniel Bright’s SRO is YCSO deputy Alex Hawkins, who has been at the school for the last three years. Vocca said he has good relationships with faculty and students. Mountain View Prep’s SRO is Roger Scarim, a former Cottonwood police officer who worked for the department for 24 years before retiring in May 2023.
“It’s amazing we’re able to have officers there daily just to mitigate any issues from anything that happens,” Vocca said. “It does bring a grounded sense to each campus as far as that — if anything were to happen — unfortunately things happen every day all over the place — if anything were to happen they have a first responder right there on campus, right away.”
The program is funded by the Arizona Department of Education. Vocca said the structure of the grant program determined which schools had SSOs versus SROs, as the district has the option to use certain grants flexibly to cover multiple positions.
Vocca said that the officers act as advocates for the children whenever they are discussing problems that arise between students with faculty and parents and that she felt the relationships officers built with the community were very positive.
