The Antioch Police Officers Association announced this week the endorsement of Mike Burkholder for Antioch School Board. He is the only candidate in the race to be endorsed.
The endorsement validates his campaigns top priority that schools must become safer for students, teachers and staff. He understands that if schools are going to become safer, the police department must be involved for realistic solutions and not false promises.
William Dee, President of the APOA, stated “The APOA feels that Mike Burkholder will work with Antioch Police to address the serious issues which face the school district in terms of safety both on campus and around campuses. With the combined efforts and hard work, we will work towards making our local schools and the city safer.”
Burkholder, with two young children in the District, highlighted the need for students and district employees to feel safe, but also the need to provide all parents with a piece of mind during the day.
“The last thing I want to worry about while my kids are at school is if they are safe. Students are there to learn and the environment should reflect that. I am honored to be endorsed by the Antioch Police Officers Association and look forward to working with them on solutions of how we can make not only our schools safer, but finding ways to ensure students can travel safely to and from school without creeps approaching young girls or students being robbed on trails.”
Burkholder is in favor of school resource officers (SRO’s) to build that relationship between the students and law enforcement, but acknowledges the city has to do its part to increase staffing into the 120-officer range before it becomes realistic to have that conversation.
Burkholder fundamentally believes that if the District can restore safety in the schools, it will help change the image of the entire District and the community.
Some immediate goals, Burkholder hopes to come up with solutions where the police department can be proactive in schools instead of responsive to incidents which take up much more of an officers time which could otherwise be spent serving the citizens of Antioch. He also wants to work with neighborhood watch groups around schools while involving parent groups to ensure safe passage to school for students.
“School safety is my top priority,” says Burkholder. “We must address it once and for all so we can begin to change not only the tone of the District, but the community impression about what goes on inside our schools so we can begin to highlight all that is right within the District.”
For more on Mike Burkholder, visit his website or his Facebook page.
2 comments
Hmm… Interesting. Lol
Endorsements help. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.
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