The Mars Area School District is bucking a statewide trend after its school board approved the hiring of three full-time school police officers last week.

Earlier this year, the board discussed an agreement with Adams Township to place officers from the township’s police department in the district’s school buildings.

On July 2, the board voted to hire three people — Daniel Herr, Robert Lagoon and Theodore Hunt — as full-time school police officers at a rate of $24 per hour as well as two others — Gerald Markle and Peter Vogel — as substitute officers.

All five men are retired state police officers. The cost for hiring the officers has been estimated at $150,000 per school year.

The school district’s fast action on this initiative is impressive. A recent story and editorial in the Butler Eagle outlined the good news that retired law enforcement officers have been eager to work as school security guards, and the corresponding bad news that this spike in demand for retired troopers has resulted in districts running out of people to hire.

However, in Mars, the board had the opposite problem. Superintendent Wesley Shipley said the district had a large talent pool from which to choose, but many applicants did not qualify under the guidelines of Act 44, a state Senate bill that created the Safe Schools and Security Committee to develop criteria that districts use regarding school safety and security measures.

Under Act 44’s guidelines, districts can only hire retired state police officers for school security guard positions. While adding restrictions at a time when some districts are scrambling to staff school police forces isn’t a good thing, ensuring that the most qualified candidates for the job are the ones who are hired is.

District Solicitor Tom King said that a state Senate bill could soon be signed by Gov. Tom Wolf that would change the school police code. The proposed changes are mostly good.

One of the requirements for new hires would be additional training and the completion of a resource officer training course. This is a no-brainer. While the officers hired have been instructed at their previous jobs on how to handle dangerous situations, extra training on how to handle similar situations in buildings filled with children is obviously important.

A question that has yet to be answered is whether the guards would be entitled to the district’s pension plan since they are retired officers and, therefore, already have a pension.

So, while it’s concerning that other communities across the state are struggling to staff their school security teams, Mars deserves a round of applause for quickly putting together its own team.

Shipley said that officers will begin training in early August, and that the township is in the process of hiring additional officers for its school police force. Other local communities should take note of Mars’ success and figure out how to do the same.