SHERIFF MOVING DEPUTY FROM SCHOOL TO STREETS

Poudre Instructor Put In New Patrol Spot

Poudre School District will be one instructor short next semester.

As part of his effort to get more deputies on the street, Larimer County
Sheriff Alderden is pulling deputy Nancy Yarberry from her duties as an
instructor in the "Here's Looking at You" drug-prevention program.

Yarberry will continue teaching the program's curriculum at county schools
until the fall semester ends Jan. 18. After that, the sheriff's office will
not have a deputy dedicated to teaching the program.

"We're transferring Nancy back to the street to create another patrol spot.
... It's just a matter of needing more bodies," Alderden said.

The move, along with four new deputy positions funded by a $440,000 budget
increase county commissioners gave the sheriff's office last week, will aid
in the creation of a new patrol district, Alderden said.

Currently, the sheriff's office has four patrol districts covering the
county. Creating a fifth district, which will focus on the Fort
Collins-Loveland area, will help the sheriff's office avoid traveling
through city limits at high speeds when responding to emergency calls, he said.

Jim Campain, PSD safe and drug-free schools coordinator, said the loss of
Yarberry will force the district to scramble a bit, but the program
shouldn't be greatly affected.

"We'll just have to find another instructor, at least for (second)
semester," he said. "Only two schools will be affected ... Livermore and
Eyestone elementary schools."

But Yarberry will be missed, as will working with the sheriff's office,
Campain said.

"She really was a quality instructor and we really appreciated the
relationship with the sheriff's office," he said.

Last year, "Here's Looking at You," or HLAY, replaced the Drug Abuse
Resistance Education, or DARE, program as PSD's drug-prevention curriculum.

The program was first taught by Yarberry in county elementary schools.
Elementary schools within the city limits began teaching the curriculum
this year, Campain said.

Unlike DARE, which was ousted after a citizen committee in July 2000
unanimously recommended the sheriff's office no longer teach the program,
HLAY does not rely on law enforcement officers as teachers, Alderden said.

Because the HLAY curriculum can be taught by teachers or counselors,
Alderden said he thinks pulling Yarberry will have a "minimal impact" on
the school district.

Campain agreed.

"It does give us more options in terms of who the instructors might be," he
said.

Currently, PSD has a partnership with TEAM Fort Collins to teach the
program at some elementary schools. That partnership will continue when
elementary schools start the second semester Jan. 23, Campain said.

Counselors and school staff members are teaching the program at other
schools, he said.

Half of PSD's elementary schools taught the HLAY curriculum this semester.
The rest will teach the program in the second semester, Campain said.

Despite the need to put more deputies on patrol, Alderden is not pulling
deputy Dave Johnson from his duties as school resource officer at Cache la
Poudre and Wellington junior high schools.

"We had a retreat and looked at the whole department and what things
directly effect our mission of providing public safety. ... The school
resource officer has a direct impact on public safety," Alderden said.

With Johnson continuing his duties, Alderden said he has had preliminary
conversations with PSD about assisting with some HLAY lessons.

Johnson attended a half-day training session on the curriculum, Campain
said, so using him as an instructor is an option. But PSD doesn't want to
rely on school resource officers to teach the curriculum, he said.

"The idea is that (school resource officers) need to be police officers
first and instructors second," Campain said. "We didn't want them to carry
the bulk of the load due to the fact that they could get called away on
police business."