The Forney Independent School District's Board members met in closed executive session during Monday night's, January 14, School Board meeting to discuss campus security.
The Forney Independent School District's Board members met in closed executive session during Monday night's, January 14, School Board meeting to discuss campus security.
After executive session, the board reconvened and voted unanimously to hire two additional school resource officers (SRO). Currently the FISD contracts with the Kaufman County Sheriff's department for five SRO's. “Two SROs are housed at each high school and the Kaufman County Lieutenant goes to every elementary and middle school campus throughout the day” according to Larry Coker, Communications Director for the FISD.
Coker also stated that, “Since the events at Sandy Hook, the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Department has increased their monitoring of all of the schools in the District.”
Before executive session, the board also approved the quarterly payment to the Kaufman County Sheriff's Office for the five current school resource officers in the amount of $74,351.10. Each additional SRO is approximately an additional $14,870.22 per quarter which translates to an average SRO payment of $59,480.88 a year, depending on the officer's experience. The total amount includes FICA, unemployment, retirement, and other fringe payments to KCSO. WIth the addition of the two officers, the total yearly cost of the FISD's school resource officer program will be approximately $416,000.
School Board President, Keith Bell, emphasized that the students' security and safety is the district's top priority. Bell requested, on behalf of the board, a plan of action for the additional SRO officers and also additional training for all of the officers from Superintendent Michael Holland. Holland is expected to brief the board during February's School Board Meeting on the 4th.
This article was updated on January 15, at 10:55 a.m. to add some clarification on the officers salary and payments. The actual average salary for an SRO officer at FISD is $43,918.27, the total payment above includes all fringe payments to KCSO for the SRO program.
