The Hernando County School District has requested $250,000 in funding to keep (14) school resource officers (SROs) and (44) crossing guards through the HC Sheriff’s Office. The School District’s Safe Schools allocation is $478,068. The cost of SROs through the contract with the Sheriff’s Office is $638,731, while the cost of crossing guards is an additional $145,337. HCSO has stated that they cannot reduce these costs further. Dr. Romano stated that the school district prefers to keep these services through the Hernando County Sheriff’s Department, “instead of contracting these services through a private security company or having no safety/security services in our schools at all.” She offered the long-term use of the ESE administrative offices at 900 Emerson Road by county entities for compensation.
UPDATE: On June 23rd, BOCC passed a motion passed in support of the funding request. A budget amendment will now “need to be approved to transfer funds from reserves to the appropriate division to accommodate the request.”