“Good point but I’d expect that a school security officer would be driving his own vehicle back and forth to the school rather than a squad car.”
None of these small suburban towns can afford a school security officer.
They have 4 high schools. It doesn’t sound like a “small” town to me.
Around here even small towns that have a security officer have the squad car at the school. They think of it as a “beware of dog sign”.
It also makes the officer available to render assistance to other officers if it is absolutely necessary.