Supervisors okay additional school security officer funding

FRONT ROYAL – As it was at the March 7 Warren County School Board meeting, school safety was a prominent topic of discussion at a March 23 Board of Supervisors work session. In the absence of Sheriff Daniel McEathron from the Friday morning budget work session, Schools Superintendent Greg Drescher presented a request for another $162,248 in revenue ($40,562 per deputy) to add four school resource officers (SRO’s) to the five currently funded.

There were other associated costs in the SRO budget proposal submitted by the sheriff, though exactly how much other than a total salary increase of $169,525 were new operational costs was unclear. The additional $7,277 above the new officer salaries were increases in the salaries of two existing ranking SRO positions, sergeant and lieutenant. The entire Sheriff’s Department SRO budget proposal totaled $692,997, an apparent increase of $326,905.

“Florida has changed our world,” Drescher said of the February 14 Parkland, Florida high school shooting. “We have to be able to say to the public we have someone there to protect your children.” Drescher also pointed to the Great Mills High School shooting much closer to home three days earlier on March 20 to accentuate his point. The 16-year-old target of that shooting in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, Jaelynn Willey, died Thursday after being taken off life support by her family.

Drescher told the supervisors that as soon as already-ordered equipment was received all the county’s schools would have buzz-in, locked-door systems. Currently all but three schools have the buzz-in system for school visitors throughout the day.

While North River Supervisor Dan Murray questioned the necessity that one of the SRO’s be a higher-ranking lieutenant – there was one SRO sergeant and one lieutenant listed at salaries about $9,000 to $15,000 above the base $40,562 number – the general consensus was that at this time and place in our society, additional expenditures for school security are a necessity.

“I have been the most outspoken against a tax increase but to save the life of one child is worth it,” Murray said of accommodating the SRO funding request.

The addition of four SRO deputies would place one resource officer in each elementary school. Currently there is one Sheriff’s Department Resource Officer assigned to each of the county’s two high schools and two middle schools, with a fifth circulating between the five elementary schools.

Drescher said he remained skeptical of the idea of arming teachers – “I’m not convinced that guns in teacher’s hands is an answer – that is not the reason they got into teaching – which is why the SRO increase is important,” Drescher told the supervisors. In a March 1 letter to the county administrator concerning the SRO request, Drescher wrote, “Having an armed SRO at each school site offers proactive protection in the event of a variety of potential issues or threats … it seems logical to offer this same

level of protection at all of our schools.” Drescher also told the supervisors how the existing SRO’s have become integrated into the lives of the schools they patrol, and consequently valued parts of their schools.

However, Drescher added that he hoped the necessary expense of additional school security would not jeopardize the requested salary increases in the public school budget request. “Having quality personnel and programming in place impacts how well managed our schools can be. This impacts safety and security. An experienced teacher who has experienced dozens of lock down drills and potential security threats is much more able to react appropriately than a newly hired individual,” he wrote county staff.

In support of the additional SRO staffing, Shenandoah District Supervisor Tom Sayre observed that one of the nation’s worst school shootings had been at Sandy Hook, an elementary school.

“I think it’s needed,” Fork District Supervisor Archie Fox said of the requested SRO personnel increase.

“Can we afford to lose one life?” Murray asked his colleagues.

“I guess we’ll have to advertise a one-cent tax increase, South River Supervisor Linda Glavis added, achieving a unanimous consensus to Chairman Tony Carter’s polling of his board’s recommendation on the SRO funding.