Johnson County Sheriff Doug Kunkel joined the Clear Creek Amana board on Dec. 11 to discuss a potential School Resource Officer (SRO) partnership and to explain local call data the sheriff's office collects.

Sheriff Kunkel said that the county's recent creation of a Tiffin-dedicated division expanded proactive deputy presence in the schools and increased "on-view" activity counts (regular school visits and foot patrols). "When we classify and categorize calls for service... on view is anything initiated by the deputy," he said, noting that many of the year-over-year increases reflect that added daily presence rather than a proportional rise in dispatched emergencies.

Kunkel described the distinction between calls for service and incident reports that receive ICR (incident case report) numbers when a report or investigation is created. He also said the county would expect the district to cover a substantial share of the deputy's time on campus (the parties discussed 75–85% district-paid time as a working range) and that legal and contract details would be negotiated in an MOU.

Board members emphasized the importance of defining an SRO's role boundaries. Several trustees said the district should make it clear that school disciplinary functions remain the responsibility of school staff and that the SRO is present for law-enforcement, safety and educational outreach duties. "We would want that officer to be there for law enforcement purposes only and not be involved with administrative or disciplinary efforts from the school," Sheriff Kunkel said as he described examples of role delineation used elsewhere.

Administrators and trustees also asked about training, body cameras, interaction with federal immigration authorities and how summer or non-school hours would be scheduled. Kunkel said SROs would follow standard Iowa Law Enforcement Academy certification and that deputies wear county-issued body cameras; he added the sheriff's office has no standing agreements with ICE and that interactions are rare and handled in compliance with state law (Iowa Code section 27A was discussed).

The board directed administration to collect sample MOUs from Cedar Rapids, Polk County and other jurisdictions and to work with the sheriff's office on a draft MOU for review in January. Administration also noted the district could pursue state shared‑FTE funding that offsets part of the cost for up to four FTEs under existing programs.