Beaufort County SC March 9 2020
The Beaufort County school board is considering a plan that would put armed security personnel in every public school, including elementary schools.
There are currently 17 armed school resource officers (SROs) in Beaufort County schools. They include officers from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, Bluffton Police Department and Beaufort Police Department. The 15 remaining schools, all elementary schools, do not have SROs.
School board members have pushed to add SROs at elementary schools, but efforts to fill the positions are limited by a short supply of eligible officers, who have to go through specific training. District officials estimate the supply will slowly increase over the next few years.
In October, board members told the district they’re interested in hiring armed security guards from a private agency to fill vacancies at elementary schools in the meantime.
“I had originally made the motion to move forward with something rather than nothing because what we had heard was that it would take years to staff it with SROs in all the elementaries,” board member Rachel Wisnefski said.
″We should be] looking at the proposed numbers for utilizing a private firm, and go ahead and get something, because we can, until SROs are staffed. Because that’s not necessarily something that we have anything to do with. It’s a demand of officers.”
At a workshop Friday, district officials introduced to the board a plan to hire armed security guards for elementary schools next school year. The board will decide whether to accept the plan over the next few months at budget workshops.
The cost, estimated by the district after receiving quotes from security agencies, would be roughly an additional $879,000. The armed personnel budget projection for 2021 without the additional guards is $1,135,552.
District officials also introduced a plan to gradually phase in SROs as they become available, at an estimated pace of three officers per year, and phase out the armed security guards. That process would start in 2022 and continue through 2026.
District spokesman Jim Foster said the board does not need to make a decision on whether to adopt the phasing plan until discussions on the next budget wind down in 2021.
Wisnefski said Wednesday she’s a proponent of the proposals and thinks they’re worth the cost additions.
“I’m very pleased with us moving forward and having a plan in place to get something right away as opposed to waiting,” she said.
“Safety and security is my No. 1 priority and I know when we had our community meetings about the [bond] referendum, safety and security was No. 1 on the list of priorities for community members as well as parents when they were surveyed. The cost is not prohibitive.”
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