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Oracle – On Thursday, Feb. 19 a meeting was held to address the concerns of several residents of Oracle. In attendance were In attendance were Executive Director Brian Heath of ROP, Compliance Manager Chad Roche, Program Director/SCA Ike Shipman for the Sycamore Canyon Academy (SCA) ; Captain Leos, Lt. Villegas and Lt. Evans of the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office; Jane Mahen and Jim Montano from We the People; and, Ron Thompson and Cy Miller from the Oracle Neighborhood Watch.
The objectives of the meeting, as stated in a letter of request addressed to SCA. were to address concerns of the community, procedural processes between the school and law enforcement, and to reduce tensions from unfounded myths and misperceptions which stemmed from the reaction of some to the lack of transparency which results from the program being based on State and Federal confidentiality regulations.
According to attendee Ron Thompson, “ The meeting was extremely cordial, with all parties expressing their issues and concerns. In the process, many procedural elements were discussed with positive input from all parties. Environmental, therapeutic programs , security, etc. were discussed to the mutual satisfaction of the community grps. as well as the Sheriff’s Department.”
Mr. Thompson continued, “From the description of their medical resources/personnel, the issues of diseases, physical and mental, appear to be adequately handled by their staff. The risk factor – escapes, violence- appears to be of minimal impact and the incident, assault rates for the past few months was surprisingly lower than we expected. All in all, I would have to say that the many myths, rumors, etc. are being found as just that and now that the community is working with the school, the anxiety/fear factor should be dramatically reduced.”
Volunteer programs were discussed, as well as contacting the Community Advisory Board, which has been in existence for some time, but relatively inactive, to see if they would like to participate in future discussions. Currently, it is expected that meetings between the Oracle Neighborhood Watch, We the People and authorities from SCA will continue on a monthly basis, in hopes of further developing a working relationship between the Oracle community and SCA. A tour of the campus will be scheduled in the near future. Potential attendees should contact the Oracle Neighborhood Watch for more information.
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