- April 18, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
The Flagler County School Board on Tuesday approved immediately spending $63,000 to add armed, off-duty deputies to all elementary schools.
The full cost for the five deputies will be about $84,000. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office will contribute the remaining $21,000. That money will come from savings since Sheriff Jim Manfre took office about one month ago.
The item was approved via a 4-1 vote — School Board member Trevor Tucker dissented. Tucker cited the district’s budget as one reason for not voting in favor of the stop-gap plan.
“If (the shooting at) Sandy Hook (Elementary School, in Newtown, Conn.) didn’t happen, would we be having this discussion?” Tucker said after the meeting.
Last month, the school district approved a donation of more than $11,000 to add a deputy at Old Kings Elementary School.
A portion of that money could get refunded back to the parent, Laura Lauria, once the new plan is put into place, according to Superintendent Janet Valentine.
“Certainly, we don’t want to take a parent’s money and have her fund one (school) and not the others,” Superintendent Janet Valentine said after the meeting. The school district’s portion will come from its fund balance, which essentially is a savings account. Money may be taken out on a one-time basis, but once it’s spent, it’s gone, said Tom Tant, chief financial officer of Flagler Schools.
The district hasn’t been able to deposit money into its savings account for the past two years, Tant said.
With the plan agreed to Tuesday, deputies will sign up for the overtime work beginning next week, Manfre said.
“Our conclusion is it’s simply not feasible for us in the time frame we have to go out and advertise, hire, train and implement to come and do that work,” Manfre said, in regard to adding five full-time school resource officers to each elementary school.
School officials have said adding SROs back into the elementary schools not only improves safety, but also establishes relationships for students at an early age.
Officials didn’t hammer out a long-term plan Tuesday, but the School Board seemed in favor of adding SROs to all schools in 2013-2014, and beyond.
One option would be include having full-time school resource officers are all of Flagler’s schools. The total cost for that would be about $437,406.
With a 50-50 split, the Sheriff’s Office and the school district each would pay about $218,000, according to numbers presented Tuesday.
The other option is to hire part-time deputies for the school as part of the agency’s reserve unit. These deputies would be added to the elementary schools at a total cost of $275,364 per year — or $137,682 for each entity.
Manfre said he must submit his budget by May 31, and so he hoped the School Board would have a decision by May 1.
“In order for the school resource officer program to work, you must start in the elementary schools, and they must be — not only guarding from the outside and providing security inside — but also being educators and mentors,” Manfre said. “That’s the only way this is cost-effective.”
Also on Tuesday, the School Board unanimously approved the color coding security system.
The system will designate colors (green, yellow, orange, red) for certain emergency situations on campuses.
Officials are also currently assessing any necessary security upgrades to all schools, including fences and cameras.
