Orange County school district, police clash over school resource officer pay
Orlando Sentinel | By Steven Walker | December 18, 2024
Orange County Public Schools and several local police agencies ramped up their public dispute this week over the cost of stationing law enforcement officers on school campuses.
On Monday evening, the district sent an email to parents whose children attend the 30 schools at the focus of the conflict. These schools are in municipalities overseen by five police agencies holding out for more money in contract negotiations with OCPS.
The memo said the school district could not afford to pay the increase the police departments want for school resource officers, often called SROs, and that it would consider other options, including hiring armed school guardians, who receive less training than law enforcement officers.
The district email said it already was spending $17 million more than it receives in school-safety money from the state and doesn’t anticipate more funds to cover the extra $2 million it would cost to meet the five agencies’ requested pay increase. OCPS also urged parents to contact their local municipality with any “concerns” they may have.
The cities of Apopka, Ocoee, Windermere, Winter Garden and Winter Park declined this fall to sign a three-year contract with the district to provide SRO services, citing a steep increase in costs and a need for financial flexibility. While officers remain on campuses this school year, there is no agreement in place beyond that.
The Apopka Police Department, negotiating for all five agencies, on Tuesday then accused the school district of “exploiting” a “horrific tragedy that occurred in another state,” a likely reference to the school shooting in Wisconsin on Monday that left three dead and others badly hurt.
The department in its statement said the agencies do not want to pull SROs from campuses nor see schools rely on guardians, but need to work out a deal that accounts for the municipalities’ rising costs.
Apopka police did not respond when asked how many, if any, parents contacted the agency because of the school memo.
The OCPS memo to parents was drafted and scheduled before the Wisconsin school shooting on Monday, spokesperson Michael Ollendorff said. He said the agency’s characterization of the memo was “false” and noted the memo never mentioned the Wisconsin shooting.
The five police departments are asking the district to cover 60% of the cost of an SRO, a price OCPS said it cannot afford without taking money out of classrooms. Last year, SROs saw a 20% pay hike, an increase that far exceeds increases given to the district’s classroom teachers, it said.
Apopka’s police department said in a previous statement that it would be “fiscally irresponsible to our residents to accept a minimal increase” given that the department’s costs are up significantly in recent years. Apopka is the largest municipality pushing back against the school district’s school offer.
The county’s two largest law enforcement agencies — the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the Orlando Police Department — and some smaller departments have already agreed to a three-year contract to continue providing school resource officers at most of Orange’s public schools. The district has about 200 schools, all of which have at least one sworn law enforcement officer stationed on campus.
The district and the agencies plan to resume negotiations in January.
As the five agencies hold out on a long-term, more lucrative SRO contract, OCPS said it would consider employing guardians at the 30 schools — an option it considers less safe — if it cannot reach an agreement with the police departments.
The Orange County School Board discussed the guardian program at a Dec. 10 workshop, with board members expressing hesitation.
Following the 2018 shooting massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead, the Florida Legislature required public schools to have either police officers or armed guardians on their campuses.
A guardian, who gets hundreds of hours less training than a sworn law enforcement officer, would cost $74,210 annually compared to $87,840 for an SRO, according to the district’s workshop presentation.
Several board members said that the nominal savings from a guardian program would not outweigh the drop-off in safety they fear if police officers were not stationed in schools.
Stephanie Vanos, whose district includes Winter Park, questioned how guardians would respond to active shooter situations, given their more limited training compared to an SRO.
Angie Gallo said she would never vote for implementing a guardian program.
“I’m going to beg those five municipalities to take a long look at what they value and how they value it, and I’m sincerely praying that they decide to do the right thing and put school resource officers in our buildings,” she said. “Because if they don’t, the decisions that we have to make up here are not fair.”
The Seminole and Osceola county school districts rely only on SROs in their schools, while Lake County uses SROs with guardians also stationed on some campuses for extra protection, according to the presentation.
