Shane Gardner, who lost a November bid for Clark County sheriff, has been hired as the new school safety and security manager at Evergreen Public Schools.
The school board approved the hiring of Gardner, currently the community outreach sergeant for the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, at a meeting Tuesday.
The salary range for Gardner’s new position is $75,000 to $85,000 annually. His current pay rate at the Sheriff’s Office is $39.49 per hour, which is about $82,000 annually.
He will start in early March. Scott Deutsch, the district’s risk manager, will retain oversight of district risk, safety and security, but will focus on the risk side. Gardner will handle daily work of safety and security, said Gail Spolar, district spokeswoman.
Gardner currently supervises the sheriff’s school resource officers, who are deputies based in schools. He facilitates countywide collaboration with all school resource officers. The district has school resource officers at its four comprehensive high schools (Mountain View, Evergreen, Heritage and Union) ,as well as security staff at high schools and middle schools.
In his new position, Gardner will oversee these security teams and provide a cohesive approach to school safety and security at all 37 Evergreen schools. Evergreen, Clark County’s largest school district, has almost 27,000 students and 3,200 staff.
Gardner said Wednesday he was looking forward to his new job.
“It was too good to pass up when I spoke up with the folks from the district and they talked about this position,” Gardner said. “This is right in my wheelhouse. The idea of doing this full time, I am super-duper excited.”
Though he had been working with school resource officers, he was due to rotate to a night shift if he had stayed at the sheriff’s office.
Gardner said the new job will be a continuation of what he’s been doing. He will still work with many of the same law enforcement and community members.
“I’m excited to embark on this adventure,” Gardner said. “My primary focus will be to create safe and secure environments for the children of Evergreen Public Schools, my own children included.”
“Shane brings us his expertise of his 16 years of law enforcement experience, along with an emphasis on community policing, outreach and restorative justice,” said John Deeder, district superintendent.
Gardner said he plans to remain as a reserve deputy with the Sheriff’s Office. Reserve deputies are fully commissioned, but they are volunteers.
“I still plan to be a part of this organization,” he said. “It’s a great organization.”
Gardner is a graduate of the district’s Mountain View High School. He has two children enrolled in district schools. His wife is a teacher with Vancouver Public Schools.
Last year, he was one of four candidates vying to succeed retiring Sheriff Garry Lucas. He advanced to the general election, where he won 44 percent of the vote compared with Chuck Atkins’ 56 percent.
