When students returned to Quincy High School this week, one of the new faces helping watch over the campus was already familiar to many people in the 98848. Former Quincy Police Chief Keith Siebert, a Quincy native and Quincy High School graduate, has joined the Quincy School District as its second full-time Safety and Security Officer, bringing a 29-year career in law enforcement back to the school where his own education began.
Superintendent Dr. Nik Bergman announced Siebert’s hiring during the Aug. 18 Quincy School Board meeting, telling board members that Siebert’s experience and expertise would be a “real value add” for the district. Siebert will be primarily stationed at Quincy High School, while Sal Mancini, who has served as the district’s Safety and Security Officer for several years, will continue to be primarily stationed at Quincy Middle School.
The district confirmed to Life in the 98848 that this is a newly added position rather than a replacement. Both Safety and Security Officers can provide assistance throughout the district, including at elementary schools, as needed. Quincy will also continue to have a School Resource Officer through the Quincy Police Department, meaning the new position expands the district’s existing school-safety structure rather than replacing either Mancini or the SRO program.
The new Safety and Security Officer position is funded through local levy dollars.
TL;DR
Former Quincy Police Chief Keith Siebert has joined the Quincy School District as a Safety and Security Officer primarily stationed at Quincy High School.
Siebert is a Quincy native and Quincy High School graduate with 29 years of law-enforcement experience.
This is a new second Safety and Security Officer position. Sal Mancini remains primarily stationed at Quincy Middle School.
Both district safety officers can provide support at other schools as needed.
The district will continue to have a Quincy Police Department School Resource Officer in addition to its two district-employed safety officers.
The position includes daily campus security as well as emergency planning, preparedness, training and crisis-response responsibilities.
Local levy dollars fund the new position.
From Quincy High School to Police Chief and Back Again
Siebert grew up in Quincy and graduated from Quincy High School before beginning a career that would eventually span 29 years in law enforcement. During that time, he served in positions ranging from corrections deputy and patrol deputy to corporal, sergeant, lieutenant and eventually Chief of Police for the City of Quincy. His experience included patrol operations, investigations, training, emergency management, SWAT and organizational leadership.
His professional background also includes extensive training and teaching. Biographical information Siebert has shared publicly lists more than 2,500 hours of training, including emergency management and incident-command courses, along with experience as an instructor in tactics, scenario-based training, leadership and other areas. He is also a U.S. Army veteran and holds an associate degree and a bachelor’s degree in business management.
Siebert’s connections to Quincy extend beyond his professional work. His community involvement has included coaching youth baseball and football, serving on the Quincy Housing Committee and participating in church and other community and professional organizations. As police chief, he also worked with schools, local government, businesses and community organizations, giving him established relationships with many of the people and agencies involved in school safety.
In describing his new position publicly on LinkedIn, Siebert said his career reinforced his belief that public safety is built on relationships and trust. He views school security as more than maintaining a safe environment, describing the importance of being present, building relationships with students and staff, recognizing concerns early and solving problems. His move to Quincy High School gives him an opportunity to apply those lessons in a setting where much of the work happens during ordinary school days rather than emergencies.
What a Safety and Security Officer Does
Although the most visible part of the job will be Siebert’s presence around Quincy High School, the district describes a position with responsibilities extending well beyond monitoring the campus.
According to information provided by the Quincy School District to Life in the 98848, Safety and Security Officers monitor parking lots, hallways and other campus areas, supervise students in various settings, address safety concerns or inappropriate behavior and assist administrators with discipline-related situations. They also work with school staff and administrators, maintain records of contacts or incidents relevant to campus safety and provide additional security assistance as needs arise.
The position also has a larger role in emergency preparedness. Safety and Security Officers help support the development and implementation of district safety plans, coordinate building-level emergency-response programs and assist with compliance with state, federal, local and district safety requirements. They work with school administrators, employees, security personnel, law enforcement and emergency-service providers on preparedness and crisis response, while also providing safety education and training to district employees.
Much of that work aligns with Siebert’s previous experience in emergency management, training, investigations and organizational leadership. While the setting and responsibilities are different from his years at the police department, the district is bringing much of that experience into its own school-safety program.
Adding a Second Officer Expands the District’s Existing Model
The district is not beginning a new school-security program with Siebert’s hiring. Mancini has served as a Safety and Security Officer for several years, primarily at Quincy Middle School. What changes for 2026-27 is the district’s capacity to provide a consistent presence at both of its larger secondary schools.
Siebert will primarily work at Quincy High School while Mancini continues at Quincy Middle School. Both officers will also be available to support the district’s elementary schools and other facilities when needed. The district said adding a second full-time Safety and Security Officer gives it more consistent daily support inside the schools while increasing its ability to respond to safety and security needs districtwide.
The district will also continue to have a School Resource Officer through the Quincy Police Department. The two roles have different responsibilities and authority: an SRO is a commissioned law-enforcement officer employed by QPD, while Safety and Security Officers are employees of the school district. The district confirmed that its Safety and Security Officers are armed, but they are not commissioned law-enforcement officers and do not have arrest authority.
For Quincy families, however, those are not entirely new distinctions. The district has operated with an SSO and SRO before. The more notable change this year is that it will now have two district-employed Safety and Security Officers in addition to the continuing SRO, giving Quincy High School and Quincy Middle School their own primarily assigned SSO while maintaining the district’s law-enforcement partnership with QPD.
Local Levy Dollars Are Funding the New Position
The additional security coverage also provides a concrete example of how local levy dollars are being used by the Quincy School District.
The district told Life in the 98848 that Siebert’s newly created position is funded through levy dollars. That connects the hiring directly to a larger conversation about school funding in Quincy, where local levy revenue supports programs, staffing and services beyond what other funding sources provide.
The district’s adopted 2026-27 budget identifies approximately $205,754 under Basic Education Safety/Duty, supported through state and local funding. The budget materials reviewed by Life in the 98848 do not identify Siebert’s individual salary or provide enough information to determine the total salary and benefit cost of the new position, so that broader budget category should not be interpreted as the cost of hiring Siebert.
What can be established is the district’s decision about how to use some of its locally raised money. For 2026-27, part of Quincy’s levy funding is being directed toward adding a second full-time Safety and Security Officer and providing Quincy High School with an officer primarily assigned to its campus.
That gives residents a more tangible way to understand a portion of their local school levy. Rather than another line in a multimillion-dollar district budget, some of those dollars will be visible each school day in the form of an additional employee working with students, staff and administrators on school safety.
Experience Comes With Community Familiarity
The district could have added another security officer without hiring someone with Siebert’s history in Quincy. His return to the high school therefore adds another dimension to the decision.
Siebert attended school here, built much of his professional career here and eventually led the city’s police department. He has worked with many of the local institutions, emergency responders and community organizations that the school district may need to coordinate with during an emergency. His background also includes youth sports coaching, community committees, church involvement and other volunteer service.
Those connections are relevant because Siebert himself has placed relationships near the center of how he describes school safety. His day-to-day work at Quincy High School will involve far more routine interactions with students and staff than emergency responses, and familiarity with the community may provide an advantage in building the relationships he believes are necessary to recognize concerns early.
That is also one of the harder parts of a position like this to measure. Emergency plans can be reviewed and incidents can be counted, but there is no simple spreadsheet for measuring the value of an adult knowing students well enough to notice when something has changed. Much of the district’s investment in an additional security officer will play out in those ordinary interactions.
What This Means to You
For families across the 98848, Siebert’s hiring represents an expansion rather than a fundamental change in the district’s approach to school security. Quincy already had a district-employed Safety and Security Officer and a School Resource Officer relationship with QPD. The addition gives the district another full-time employee devoted to safety and allows both Quincy High School and Quincy Middle School to have an SSO primarily assigned to their campuses.
The arrangement also maintains a connection between school security and law enforcement without making them the same job. Siebert and Mancini work for the school district and handle the daily security, preparedness and support responsibilities assigned to their positions, while the district’s continuing SRO provides the commissioned law-enforcement component through Quincy Police.
For local taxpayers, the hiring provides a specific example of where some levy dollars are going. The district has decided that increasing its own security capacity is worth using locally raised revenue to fund an additional full-time position. The individual cost of Siebert’s position was not available in the materials reviewed for this story, but the district has confirmed the source of the funding.
For students, the change will probably be much more ordinary. Most will see Siebert in a hallway, parking lot or school activity rather than during a crisis. The district’s investment will be tested not only by how its security team responds when something serious happens, but by whether that daily presence helps prevent smaller concerns from becoming larger ones.
Back Where His Story Started
There is a certain symmetry in Siebert’s return to Quincy High School. He once walked its halls as a student before serving in the U.S. Army, building a 29-year law-enforcement career and eventually becoming police chief in the same community where he grew up. This school year, he returns to those halls with a different title and a different responsibility.
Siebert has publicly identified two principles that guided him through his career: “Look for work” finding ways to contribute rather than waiting to be asked and “Leave it better than you found it.” Both are prominently featured in biographical material outlining his years of public service.
The Quincy School District’s decision to hire Siebert gives those principles a new setting. It also gives the 98848 a second district Safety and Security Officer, keeps the existing SRO partnership with Quincy Police in place and puts an experienced hometown graduate primarily at Quincy High School.
The success of that investment will not be measured only by what happens during an emergency. Much of it will be measured quietly, during ordinary school days, in whether students and staff feel safe, whether concerns are recognized early and whether the relationships Siebert considers central to public safety can be built inside the same Quincy High School where his own relationship with this community began.
