ADAMS TWP — The tragic school shooting in 2012 in Newtown, Conn., prompted the Mars School Board to hire the Adams Township Police to place an officer on school property every day the students are in attendance.

Almost two years later, all agree that the plan was a good one.

Three Mars principals at Tuesday night’s school board meeting expressed their approval of the project, in which one Adams officer from a rotation of seven or eight officers spend each day in or on the property of one of the five Mars school buildings.

The district pays the police force $84,000 per school year for the on-site officers.

Elementary school principal Bob Zaccari said the officer interacts with his second-, third- and fourth-grade students in the hallways, lunchroom, playground and at arrival and dismissal time.

Zaccari said the officers who patrol are various ages and personalities, which is beneficial.

“It gives the kids different guys they can connect with,” he said.

The officer will frequently stand at the parent pickup area as students leave school each day, which Zaccari feels can be a comfort to parents.

“The officers are just another positive role model for the kids,” Zaccari said.

High school principal Todd Kolson said the program allows his students to form a positive, and not just punitive, attitude about police in general.

“I think our students see them in a new light by getting to know them in the schools,” Kolson said.

He said the high school students talk to the officers about goings-on in the community, both positive and negative. He said feedback from students has been positive.

“In general, I think the students appreciate the fact that the district and local law enforcement have come together to help keep our schools safe,” Kolson said.

Centennial School Principal Todd Lape said officers from Adams, as well as Mars and Middlesex Township, come to the school for the lockdown drill each month.

“It’s great having the officers in the building during the drill because they think of safety in a different way than a principal,” Lape said.

“They are trained to think in the way a criminal would.”

Adams Township Police Chief William Westerman said the district and his police force entered into a contract with the school district to provide an officer at the school buildings every day.

He said the officer on detail at the school remains on school property all day and cannot be dispatched to respond to any police calls.

The officers on rotation at the school district sign up for the task.

Westerman said the officer gets there in the morning and roams among the schools at random. He said they walk the halls, interact with students and teachers, or patrol the school property.

“You never know where they are going to be,” he said.

He said the officer’s police cruiser parked in front of the school may deter potential criminals.

“That may make the public, and even the kids, stop and think a little bit,” Westerman said.

He said having the officers in the schools allows students to form a positive relationship with them.

“It lets the kids know that a police officer is not a bully,” he said.

Benefits of the collaboration, said Westerman, are the students forming a relationship with their local police, and officers learning every nook and cranny of all five schools.

“Those school buildings are a lot of ground to cover,” Westerman said. “If something were going on, (the officers) know all those schools inside and out.”

He said the program achieves its main goal, which is providing increased safety to students and staff as they learn and work at Mars.

“I think it’s a good program,” Westerman said. “It’s beneficial on both sides, and we ought to continue it.”

School board President Dayle Ferguson said the district’s relationships with local officers go beyond safety benefits.

“Their daily visible presence on our school campus and inside our school facilities builds confidence, establishes trust, and promotes healthy opportunities for positive reinforcement of good decision making,” Ferguson said.

“These officers have become important members of our school district family and respected voices in our ongoing safety and security efforts,” she said.