Union County renews school resource officer agreement for La Grande schools

Union County kept a familiar safety presence in La Grande schools when commissioners renewed the sheriff’s office agreement for School Resource Officer services during their regular meeting Wednesday, May 20, at the Joseph Building Annex in La Grande. The vote preserved a law-enforcement role that has become part of day-to-day school operations, with the county and La Grande School District choosing continuity rather than a fresh start as the next school year approaches.

The renewed deal kept the basic arrangement intact: the school district pays for the service, and the sheriff’s office supplies a deputy trained for school work. The most recent publicly reported La Grande contract, approved in 2023, called for district payments of $90,322 in 2023-24, $95,092 in 2024-25 and $97,945 in the final year. The renewal approved May 20 continued that same county-district partnership rather than shifting the cost burden or changing the public safety model.

An SRO’s job reaches well beyond responding to emergencies. The deputy is expected to spend the academic year in schools, meeting with students, faculty and staff, while also helping with visitor control, de-escalation, traffic around campus and the kind of regular contact that can make it easier for a student to raise a concern before it grows into a larger problem. For families, that means La Grande schools will still have a visible deputy on campus under the same general framework the district has relied on in recent years.

The renewal also fit a broader countywide pattern. In July 2025, the county approved a new school resource officer contract covering five school districts and one education service district, showing that Union County has treated school security as a shared responsibility across the region, not just in La Grande. The sheriff’s office patrol page currently lists Deputy Sutten and Deputy Capers assigned to the La Grande School District, while Deputy Humphries is assigned to Cove, Union, Imbler and North Powder school districts. That staffing pattern, along with the earlier move that saw Deputy Hernandez promoted to sergeant and Deputy Sutten step into the La Grande SRO role, showed the program remained steady even as personnel changed.