T-R PHOTO BY NICK BAUR Beginning March 1, the Marshalltown Police Department will have an enhanced presence at Miller Middle School as part of an effort to assist in curbing behavioral issues.

The Marshalltown Police Department will be “enhancing” its presence at Miller Middle School in coming weeks as the district looks to curb behavioral problems at the building.

Last week, Miller Middle School released an update to parents about the administration’s “continued effort to curb physical altercations at Miller, as well as students who take and share videos of such incidents.”

The release also stated, “For those participating in physical altercations our consequences of out of school suspension for all involved (whether fake or real) will continue,” and physical confrontations could result in disorderly conduct or assault charges.

Police Chief Mike Tupper said the move is in response to recent conduct by students at the school, but said conduct is not “out of the ordinary” and there has not “been an uptick in criminal issues at the school.”

“This spring, they’ve been dealing with some behavior issues,” Tupper said. “We’re just trying to address some of those issues before they become a problem.”

With the department already having unofficial liaison officers assigned to, and working with, each school building in the district, Tupper says the increase in MPD presence is merely a step up from the services usually provided to the district.

“We’re just enhancing what we’ve been doing a little bit to provide a more formal presence,” Tupper said. “I think certainly anytime there’s a uniformed police officer around, if people are thinking about doing something that they shouldn’t do, they think twice. I think it does help with a deterrent.”

In 2023 so far, the Marshalltown School Board has suspended nine students for varying degrees of severity, with seven of these suspensions being handed down last week, after closed, confidential disciplinary hearings in front of the board.

As MCSD Superintendent Theron Schutte said, Marshalltown is not an exception as school districts across the U.S. grapple with the return to learning in a post-pandemic environment.

“Marshalltown CSD, like many districts across the state and country, have seen an uptick of student dysregulation, often exhibited through misbehavior, since having experienced the pandemic,” said Schutte, in an email to the Times-Republican. “The Marshalltown CSD has taken many proactive steps to support all students within our social-emotional and behavioral framework but we also are experiencing a higher degree of discipline having to be administered.”

Administrators at Miller Middle School are also slated to appear before the Marshalltown School Board at its next regular meeting on Monday, March 6, to provide an update on actions they are taking to improve the climate at the school.

Tupper said the increased presence will extend till the end of the current academic year and will be reevaluated afterward.

“We talk regularly with the school district about matters of mutual concern, and this is just something that we jointly decided to try to see if it might help,” Tupper said. “We value this opportunity, because it gives us an opportunity to build relationships with students and families and staff members that we wouldn’t normally be able to be able to have if we weren’t working with the school district. So, this is a great opportunity for us to enhance our outreach efforts too.”

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Contact Nick Baur at 641-753-6611 or nbaur@timesrepublican.com.