A “Standing Strong” rally organized by Misti Drew, a former county commissioner, was held on the lawn of the Marshall County Courthouse Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m. preceeding the Fiscal Court meeting at 9:30 a.m.
Remarks during the rally came from current School Resource Officers, teachers, parents, Brian Cope – father of Preston Cope and Sheriff Eddie McGuire in support of keeping the SRO’s in all county schools and to encourage the county commissioners to ensure that funds are there to continue the program under the Sheriff’s Office. Along with the rally, a petition circulated called ‘Keep the MCSO School Resource Officer Program’ reaching their goal of 2,000 signatures.
The debate over the funding of the SRO’s arose during a Fiscal Court meeting on April 21 over a Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant that would have provided $350,000 in federal funding over a three-year period for the program which Neal did not sign, citing his priority is the fiscal court budget and signing the grant would mean the county and school system would share the cost which he said was not feasible for the county.
During the exchange with Neal and the Fiscal Court in the meeting that took place through Zoom, Marshall County Sheriff Eddie McGuire said, “You’re putting dollars on safety.”
School Superintendent Trent Lovett explained the sharing of expenses for the officers saying, “We pay 66% of their salary, while they are working for us. Then the remainder of the year, the other 33 and a third percent is paid for by the Sheriff’s Office.”
CLICK HERE to view the April 21, 2020 meeting.
Currently there are eight SRO’s, three at Marshall County High School, one at each of the two middle schools, and the six elementary schools share three SROs.
In a statement published on Facebook Monday, Judge/Executive Kevin Neal outlined his proposed plan for Resource Officers in the Marshall County School System. His proposal is to create a School Resource Officer Agency.
In his statement Neal said: “This would be a new law enforcement agency funded primarily by the school with help from the fiscal court. The school system’s budget in 2019 was 65 million dollars. The County had a budget of 22 million. This might help you understand why the school pays a majority of the line item for school resource officers. The county will partner with the school to keep our students safe. The officers would be POPS certified. There would be 11 officers with one as an acting supervisor. There would be a small office for the officers at each school if available. The supervisor would answer to myself and the fiscal court.”
Neal said this plan would improve the number of Resource Officers from eight to 11, if not SRO trained they would be during their first year on the job and said it would get more for the taxpayer’s dollar while increasing school security.
“This is a better deal for our students, faculty, and staff, and that matters most.”
Neal’s second proposal would keep management of the school resource officers with the Sheriff’s Office and said it is not much different that the first proposal saying, “the details in the first proposal would be mandatory minus the formation of a new and separate law enforcement agency.”
Read his full statement on the “Re-Elect Judge/Executive Neal” Facebook page.
County Commissioners Kevin Spraggs and Monti Collins had already made public their intentions to keep the SRO program in tact with the Sheriff’s Office. Commissioner Justin Lamb stated on Friday that he also plans to vote to keep the SRO’s with the Sheriff’s Office.
In last week’s budget workshop meeting of the Fiscal Court, a proposal was made to cut $843,000 from the sheriff’s department’s budget which eliminates the funds for the SRO’s. A $400,000 line was diverted from the Sheriff’s Office budget to the Fiscal Court general fund that would directly fund the resource officers.
CLICK HERE to view the June 1, 2020 budget workshop meeting.
At the June 1 budget workshop meeting, Neal said it is his opinion that the school should be funding and hiring the officers, while McGuire said he is trying to cut costs within his office to keep the officers inside the schools.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the Fiscal Court committed to keeping the SRO’s with the Sheriff’s Office as it has been and a vote will take place at the next Special Called budget meeting on Monday, June 22, as well as a vote to add three new SRO’s.