Cities may help Manatee district pay for added school security

The Manatee County School District is hopeful the three municipalities with schools in their city limits won't follow Manatee County's lead in rejecting a proposal to help the district pay for required increases in campus security.

Holmes Beach has already decided it will keep a police officer in Anna Maria Elementary as a school resource officer and Palmetto Police Chief Scott Tyler is recommending Palmetto do the same at its three public schools.

"I think it's an excellent agreement," Tyler said. "I very much support this, but the numbers are preliminary and we will have to factor in any potential raises for three officers."

It appears Holmes Beach and Palmetto will save money after the school proposed they pay 30 percent of the cost, compared to the 50-50 split that has been in place for years. Palmetto may come out ahead because the district has agreed to pick up the tab for their school resource officers.

Neither Holmes Beach nor Palmetto would see much of a change to their department's needs given the limited number of schools. That's not the case for Bradenton, which will need to devote nine full time and two part-time officers as school resource officers.

While the district claims Bradenton would save $250,000 under its proposal, Economic Development Director Carl Callahan said it's not true. The city would have to pay about $162,000 more a year to fund those officers, he said.

Councilman Bemis Smith argued city taxpayers are already paying for schools in school and county taxes and shouldn't be forced to pay an additional share. But other council members quickly supported the proposal presented Wednesday by Deputy Superintendent Ron Ciranna.

"I'm going to go on record very quickly to support this when this council decides to do something," said Councilman Gene Gallo. "The children are the most important thing in the world to all of us and a priority in our lives. I prefer to have our chiefs train individuals protecting our kids rather than somebody working for an outside organization."

With Manatee County opting out of the district's proposal for financial reasons, the district said it plans to start a "guardian" program allowed under a new state law. Ciranna said time is running out for the district to have those personnel in place by the start of school in August.

"I have a draft of job responsibilities that I'm already posting, but it isn't even board approved yet," Ciranna said.

Requirements thus far, besides the state-mandated fire arms training, is that they have high school diploma and a security background.

"It's paramount that the county, cities and school district come together for the safety of the children," Ciranna said. "We've had a great relationship with the city and you have great SROs that we would like to see continue in our schools."

Ciranna said if the cities can get on board, it means fewer guardians the district has to try and hire and have in place by August. It's already being estimated that 60 percent of those applying to the guardian program won't qualify and to have 30-35 of them in place by August "is the stress of my job," Ciranna said.

Councilman Harold Byrd Jr. voiced his support.

"One of the main functions of local government is public safety," he said. "You want to make sure your city is going the extra mile, so I'm going to support, at any time, the six schools in the city are going to have adequate protection by our police officers."

Chief Melanie Bevans didn't weigh in on the conversation, but Mayor Wayne Poston, as police commissioner, said there's more to it than just supplying more school resource officers.

"It throws a monkey wrench in our operations," Poston said. "This is another knee-jerk reaction by the legislature and they haven't had enough time to figure out what they've done. It's the typical mandate that drives us all crazy and is going to be revisited in the next session."

Ciranna was questioned about how much the district is getting from the state for the program. Ciranna said that even if the cities did cooperate, there would be a $1.5 million defiicit.

Vice Mayor Patrick Roff had a different argument in opposition, pointing out how a proposed increase in the homestead exemption on the November ballot will cost the city tax revenue.

"The school district is immune from those exemptions but we are not," Roff said. "We are in budget season and you can budget for those taxes while we can't. The Florida League of Cities analyzed this and said the legislature and governor clearly put this mandate on the school districts. At $850 million, your budget is eight times more than ours and you aren't going to see a reduction in tax revenue, but we will."

Palmetto and Bradenton are expected to take up votes on whether to accept the district's proposal in the coming weeks.

This story was originally published May 23, 2018 at 2:19 PM with the headline "Cities may help Manatee district pay for added school security."