Lagoon, Koscinski Hired as Armed Police Officers for Ellwood City Schools

The Ellwood City Area School Board hired two armed school police officers for the 2019-2020 school year.

Robert Lagoon of Zelienople and Brad Koscinski of Grove City were announced as the first armed officers who will serve the school district thanks to a $156,400 grant provided by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. The grant will allow the district to employ the two officers for two years.

A unanimous vote by the board to hire the men was followed with praise from one board member.

“I’d like to thank Mr. Mancini and Mr. Sovich for seeing that we were able to get this grant,” said Leroy Cortez board member.

John Sovich, high school principle and the school district’s security coordinator, along with Superintendent, Joseph Mancini, were instrumental in securing the grant.

One officer will patrol the Lincoln High School site, which also includes Hartman Elementary. The other officer will patrol both North Side and Perry schools. The officers will serve during normal school hours. Other after school sports and activities will be covered by local police.

Superintendent Joseph Mancini said previously that a security assessment’s findings led the district to apply for the grant and allocate the funding to be used to hire armed personnel. He said that assessment revealed that the Ellwood City School District was the only one in the county that did not have some type of security personnel on duty during school hours.

That along with the trend in violence across the country were the main motivations for the district to secure the grant.

“I think the kids would feel safer,” Mancini said during an interview in May. “We wanted to have a visible security presence.”

To read more about how the district plans to facilitate the officers, click here