Here’s how Beaufort Co. schools plans to get security in every building next year
Beaufort County School District is one step closer to getting school resource officers at every school after Friday’s school board meeting.
The plan means that half the district’s schools will get dedicated security personnel next school year, where they now use a community resource officer program that spreads five police officers across more than 30 public and private county schools.
The school board approved a plan that will place 16 armed security guards at elementary school campuses without school resource officers in 2020-21, then gradually replace them with school resource officers as they become available.
District chief security officer Dave Grissom said Friday that he expects to add three school resource officers to the district every year. By 2026, every campus in the district will have a school resource officer, he predicted.
Currently, the district pays just over $1 million annually for its 16 school resource officers, stationed at every K-8, middle and high school campus in the district.
Chief security officer Dave Grissom estimated Friday that hiring 16 armed security guards will raise district security costs by $900,000 next year, to nearly $2 million.
This cost will continue to climb as the guards are replaced with SROs, costing an additional $900,000 by 2026, when Grissom estimated the guards will all be replaced.
The school district will put out bids for security firm contracts this week, superintendent Frank Rodriguez said Friday.
What’s in place?
This move comes five months after a unanimous board vote to look at hiring elementary school guards, introduced by Pritchardville rep Rachel Wisnefski.
Currently, each of the district’s middle and high schools are patrolled by a school resource officer from the Bluffton and Beaufort police departments, as well as the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
District elementary schools share five community resource officers from the sheriff’s office with other private schools in the county. In total, the five officers patrol more than 30 schools. The program is free for the district.
The district started the year with 14 school resource officers, and has stationed officers at Right Choices, an alternative school housed at the district administrative office, and three elementary schools. Grissom declined to name which elementary schools were covered at Friday’s meeting.
Grissom said in October the district pays 75 percent of the cost for each officer, while the law enforcement agencies provide the remaining 25 percent.
Security was also included in November’s successful $345 million school bond referendum, with $25.7 million set aside for safety and security improvements at every school in the district.
Nine district schools will close this summer to get referendum-approved technology and security upgrades:
Beaufort High School
Lady’s Island Middle School
Beaufort Elementary School
Hilton Head Island Elementary School
Whale Branch Middle School
H.E. McCracken Middle School
Right Choices
Bluffton Elementary
Whale Branch Elementary