BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – There was quite a revelation two weeks ago at a Broward School Board meeting.
Eight months into the school year and cities around Broward County were still not being reimbursed for the resource officers currently safeguarding the children and faculty in those schools.
“I’m not OK with one more day holding this back to be able to pay them what we owe them because it’s just wrong,” said Broward School Board Member Debi Hixon.
However, despite budget concerns, the school board voted on Tuesday to move forward and pay school resource officers $103,000 per officer per year for the next three years.
The new agreement amounts to $20 million per year, a cost that could affect other safety measures.
“We also have some other initiatives surrounding perhaps metal detectors,” said Broward Schools Chief of Safety and Security Jaime Alberti.
On Tuesday, Local 10 News also heard from the Hollywood Police Chief Chris O’Brien, who reminded the board of their responsibility.
“Let me just remind this board that it’s the school district’s responsibility to provide a safe school officer,” he said. “Municipalities are happy to be a partner in this, but we just want to be reimbursed our fair share.”
Funding in the future will come from the referendum dollars recently approved by the Broward voters.
“Not that we don’t want to provide the law enforcement officers, but this is very taxing on cities,” said Bob Mayersohn, Parkland Commissioner and League of Broward Cities.
“They’ll make it work and we’ll have to go back and look at the budget and unfortunately something might be cut,” said Broward School Board Chair Lori Alhadeff.
The new deal will now have to be approved by the different cities and their police departments.