Jacksonville — In a workshop with community leaders, Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels broke down just how much money would be need to place armed school resource officer in each Clay County school.
Daniels says currently the County pays for 62.47% of the School Resource Officer Program and the district picks up the remainder. The budget is currently $1.4 million.
This upcoming year to implement the program, there will be a sharp increase to $4.5 million. Daniels says there is little wiggle room breaking down the costs;
-Personnel Costs : $1.5 million
-Equipment: $720,000
-Vehicles: $1.9 million
Daniels says the plan would be to have enough deputies for every school, as well as six for relief, one training deputy and keeping the right ratio of deputies to sergeants.
The basis for the salary was not for a beginner deputy, Daniels said it’s important that the new deputies not be enrolled in the school resource program.
“It would be negligible for me to put a deputy with no law enforcement experience in a setting with our children,” Daniels said.
Daniels said the pressing issue however is paying for the program. “As it stands I have 30 people to be hired next Tuesday if there’s going to be funding available.”
If no funding is available the alternative for the district is using the ‘guardian’ program. Guardian programs train faculty members to carry firearms at schools.
