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District Looks at Options for Security at Schools The Cost for Hiring Sheriff's Officers is Becoming an Issue in Talks for a New Contract.

Posted on: Friday, 11 November 2005, 18:00 CST

By TIA MITCHELL

The Duval County school system is re-evaluating its program of putting police officers in schools in an attempt to cut expenses and gain more control of its partnership with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

However, as the school system is looking for a cheaper way to provide security at its 45 middle and high schools and three alternative schools, the Sheriff's Office wants to charge more for its services.

The school system paid the Sheriff's Office $1.1 million during the first six months of this year.

The school system is assessing its entire security program for ways to increase efficiency and lower costs. It pays for 48 Jacksonville police officers and a Jacksonville Beach police officer to serve as school resource officers.

Assessing the success of school resource officers and getting a handle on those expenses have been complicated by the lack of a written agreement between the two agencies. The only approved contract was an initial agreement signed in 1990 that expired the next year. For 14 years, the Sheriff's Office has billed the school system according to the old agreement, and the district has complied.

A recent state Auditor General's report cited the lack of a contract, which is required under state law. Because of that, the school system cannot properly monitor the program or verify the accuracy of invoices, auditors found.

Negotiations for a new contract are bogged down because of disagreement over how much the district should pay.

The Sheriff's Office wants to charge more for its services, including an additional $600,000 annually for six sergeants who supervise the school resource officers. That alone would raise the bill to about $3 million a year.

"It's a negotiation and a bargaining issue that we're trying to work out," said John Radcliffe, the school system's point person for the school resource officer program. "We're trying to put dollars in the classrooms, not in the Sheriff's Office coffers."

Asistant Chief Michele Remolde, who is representing the Sheriff's Office in the negotiations, said the police department examined its costs and realized the school system wasn't paying its fair share.

"Those sergeants are dedicated to the school resource officers, so really they have been getting those services for several years that they should have been billed," she said.SELF-POLICING OPTION

One option the school district is considering is ending the partnership with the Sheriff's Office and hiring officers through its own police force. The Duval County School Police Department provides security services at district-owned buildings.

School resource officers are assigned to individual schools on a full-time basis during the academic year. The school system pays two- thirds of their salaries, benefits and vehicle maintenance fees to the Sheriff's Office.

Resource officers work in cooperation with the principals in each school. However, the officers ultimately fall under the sheriff's authority.

The Taser debate highlights these concerns. Sheriff John Rutherford has decided all his officers, including those assigned to schools, will carry Tasers and has maintained the School Board had little say in this decision or other police issues. Some parents and community members have blasted school system officials for not insisting Tasers be kept off school property.

The school district would have full authority over school resource officers if a new plan is put in place, Radcliffe said.

However, interim Superintendent Nancy Snyder said any discussion about parting ways with the Sheriff's Office is premature.

"I don't think anybody has come to that decision at all," she said. "The decision first has to be what is the specific need at schools, and, after we determine that, then we need to see who is best at delivering the service that is required."

The Duval County school resource officer program was launched in 1990 when police officers were assigned to six of the county's rowdiest schools to quell rising violence. Fifteen officers were added in 1994 and plans were announced to assign an officer to every middle and high school.

Since then, the cost of the program has escalated. In 2002, the district paid the Sheriff's Office about $155,000 a month for school resource officers. That figure increased to about $189,000 a month in 2004.

The daily demands of each school resource officer vary according to the location of the school and makeup of the student body.

The Sheriff's Office requires the officers to enforce laws on campus and investigate criminal offenses. Under Sheriff's Office rules, they are not allowed to act as school disciplinarians or involve themselves in student discipline.

There have been complaints from some parents and students that officers do overstep those boundaries. But many incidents of school discipline can be classified as crimes; an example is a fight between students that leads to misdemeanor charges of battery or disrupting a school function.

Sgt. Michael Bruno, who supervises seven officers at schools in downtown and west Arlington, said they have a duty to break up fights.

"If you observe something like that, you have to insert yourself in that situation," he said. "And when the dust settles you can decide if rules or laws have been broken."

Many resource officers take on additional responsibilities at their schools. For example, the resource officer at Forrest High School is also a basketball coach. The school resource officer at Lake Shore Middle School has a girls group called Club Destiny that last year held a fashion show. The officer at Highlands Middle School has organized a reading program for students.ONE OFFICER'S DAY

After three years at Andrew Jackson High School, Officer Richard Hendley knows many of the 1,600 students by name. Some give him hugs. Many trust him enough to let him know when they hear of a fight being planned or students who have brought contraband into the school.

"He's fair, and the students know that," said Steve Bellamy, a security guard who works at the school. "They know they can talk to him about anything. We've nipped a lot of things in the bud before they start."

When Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores rose at Jackson last year, Hendley attributed some of that success to improvements in campus security. Teachers are more effective in the classroom when disruptions are down, and students perform better when they feel safe, he said.

"These are my babies," Hendley said, motioning to a crowd of students at lunchtime. "But I'll put them in jail in a heartbeat."

His job requires constant communication with school administrators and a team of unarmed security guards and off-duty police officers who work on campus.

In a single day last week, Hendley counseled the father of a 9- year-old boy caught roaming the hallways, met with a detective investigating burglaries to cafeteria vending machines, ran a quick background check on three men caught trespassing on campus, and wrote a juvenile citation to a student who started a fight inside a classroom.

When the bell rang at 2:15 to signal the end of the day, Hendley realized he had not eaten lunch. After all the buses had pulled away, he looked across Main Street at a building with blacked-out windows and reminded himself to check on its status. tia.mitchell@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4425COPS IN SCHOOLSDuval County: 49 officers, cost in 2004 was $2.3 millionClay County: 12 officers, $325, 000St. Johns County County: 14 officers, $432,000Nassau County: 6 officers, cost not availableSource: Duval, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties public school systems

Source: Florida Times Union

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