School security officers face possible cuts

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - The Lafayette Parish School Board enters talks this week on how to close a $12 million budget shortfall.

Items on the table for possible elimination include placing police and security officers on middle and high school campuses.

The Advocate reports (https://bit.ly/1gZj7R6 ) school resource officer and safety officer program costs the school system about $1.1 million dollars. The money pays for nearly 30 officers who work at all high school campuses and nearly every middle school campus.

The school resource officer and safety officer program costs the school system about $1.1 million dollars. The money pays for nearly 30 officers who work with faculty and staff at all high school campuses and nearly every middle school campus to ensure safety.

The program began in the 2006-07 school year on two campuses and was expanded parish-wide two years later.

Superintendent Pat Cooper said recently that he doesn’t want to see the program cut and doubts that it will be, but the program was added to the proposed list of potential cuts for the board’s consideration because of its hefty price tag.

“I would fight very much against cutting the school resource officer program because it’s valuable,” Cooper said. “We actually need more resource officers, not less, but it had to be put on the table as a big-ticket item to make the board aware of how serious this is.”

Some policy change suggestions have involved reducing the reserve to 2.5 months or to two months, though the full board rejected that suggestion at a board meeting earlier this year. The policy change will likely be revisited during the board’s workshop on the general fund scheduled for 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The school system holds contracts with local law enforcement agencies to provide school resource officers. As part of the contract, the school system shares the salary cost for nearly 20 police officers.

Typically, the police agency covers the officers’ benefits and some training expenses, according to Bradley Cruice, the school system’s health and wellness director.

The school system pays the full salary for the seven school safety officers who work in cooperation with school resource officers at some high schools and middle schools, Cruice said.

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Information from: The Advocate, https://theadvocate.com