PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – Pembroke Pines officials agreed to keep School Resource Officers at all Broward County Public Schools in the city starting Monday while they continue negotiations on how to cover the cost.
Rosario Mateo, a Pembroke Pines resident, told commissioners she remembers the city’s response after the 2012 shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
“The risk of doing nothing was not an opportunity regardless of the cost of the city,” Mateo said during a Pembroke Pines commission meeting on Wednesday evening at the City Center.
Mateo addressed Mayor Angelo Castillo, Vice Mayor Thomas Good, Jr., and Commissioners Maria Rodriguez, Michael Hernandez, and Jay D. Schwartz.
As part of the SRO program, BCPS paid local police $12,000 per officer during the 2007-08 school year and about $46,250 during the 2011-12 school year. BCPS increased the pay per SRO to $103,000 last year.
“Our kids are worth more than the money the city is currently subsidizing,” said Maria Rosenthal, a Pembroke Pines resident and teacher at Chapel Trail Elementary School.
“We are underpaid,” said Rodriguez about the deficit adding that the city’s advocates need to lobby state lawmakers for more funding for SROs.
Pembroke Pines Chief Joe Vargas told the commission that a part-time SRO earns about $65,000 and a full-time SRO’s salary depends on experience. He welcomed a department-specialized SRO unit.
Good said the city’s schools will have SROs “no matter what.” City Manager Charles F. Dodge said the current SROs were part of the city’s budget. He later added that the city has been providing SROs to the city’s charter schools. Vargas said the charters had seven SROs.
“We will be at our schools,” Dodge said about the city’s SROs being at schools during the transition to a new agreement.
There were fears that the city was not going to provide the service. Nearly through tears, Terry Moody, a Pembroke Pines resident and a head custodian at Chapel Trail, told commissioners that her grandchild was starting school Monday and she only trusts a city SRO with her safety.
“Guardians and even county SROs will not have that vetted investment,” Moody said.
The initial SRO program started as a pilot in 1985. Castillo said the city has been a BCPS vendor “in a smaller part of the pie” for decades and the city “did it for free” when it first started.
“The kids were in school and we went to protect them ... That’s what the city does, and we had to front the money from our savings,” Castillo said during a commission meeting Wednesday night.
City Attorney Samuel S. Goren agreed the state requires the school board to have an armed safety officer at every school. The Broward County Public Schools Police partners with the Broward Sheriff’s Office to run an armed guardian program to fill in the gaps.
Earlier during the meeting, Jaime Alberti, the BCPS chief safety and security officer, and BCPSP Chief Kevin Nosowicz stood before the commission to support a hybrid program with SROs and guardians.
“We have 17 schools in Fort Lauderdale that we cover solely with guardians,” Nosowicz told the commission adding that an SRO rotates between the schools.
Nosowicz said many of the guardians were sometimes better than some police officers. He said many had served in the military and a few were former federal agents.
Hernandez, a father with two kids in public school, was among the parents in Pembroke Pines who said they prefer SROs over guardians with or without a hybrid option.
“I just don’t feel confident in guardians with one officer that floats in those schools,” Hernandez said.
Schwartz agreed. He used a small bottle of water to hold up an “I want SROs in EVERY PPines School” sign at the dais during the commission meeting.
The agenda for the 5-hour-long commission meeting included motions related to SROs at nine elementary schools, three middle schools, and two high schools in the city.
The police sponsored three motions for agreements for the 2023-24 school year on motion 20, recent summer school with part-time SROs on motion 25, and the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years on motion 28. The city estimated a $2.1 million subsidy over the three-year SRO agreement with BCPS.
“We have to find the funds to cover that cost because our SROs were paid for that full year,” Dodge told commissioners during the meeting about the 2023-24 school year.
From Aug. 14 to June 11, there was one SRO at each of the nine elementary schools: Chapel Trail, Lakeside, Palm Cove, Panther Run, Pasadena Lakes, Pembroke Lakes, Pembroke Pines, Pines Lakes, and Silver Palms. Hernadez said high schools have the SROs.
The agreement on the table from Aug. 5 through June 2026 had the school board funding four SROs at $454,230 for 2024-25 and about $476,942 for 2025-26 — leaving a 2-year overage of about $22,452. Goren said the formal proposal was delivered from the school district to the city.
“If you made suggested changes to the documents, those changes will have to go back to the school board,” Goren told commissioners about the possibility of a counter-proposal.
In response, Hernandez sponsored a new motion for the city to pay SROs to stay in place at the nine elementary schools until Dec. 23, the beginning of winter break, while negotiations continue with BCPS.
“Any Pembroke Pines SRO officer who may be displaced post-Dec. 23 will be receiving their 3% special unit pay for a minimum of six months,” Hernandez said about his motion.
Rodriguez seconded the motion. Castillo said the city will pay for the elementary schools’ SROs until Dec. 23, so that negotiations continue with the Broward County School Board. Good said the motion would put the city at a higher loss.
“We are not going to get reimbursed for any of those 9 ... At least my proposal, we would have been reimbursed up to $108,000 a year, which would have meant that we would only be spending $50,000 per SRO, not $175,000,” Good said.
The motion failed 4 to 1 only with Hernandez’s “reluctant” support. Castillo then stepped up and presented a motion to reconsider, but it didn’t have support from Rodriguez, Good, or Schwartz. There were attempts to introduce other motions, but Castillo did not allow it.
The commission requested a workshop with the school board to request they go back to the May 1st proposal to consider accepting the rate, and the meeting ended before midnight.