Less than a year after four people were killed in the deadliest school shooting in Georgia history, county officials said they won’t continue to split the cost for school resource officers in the Barrow County School District.
It means the district northeast of Atlanta is on the hook for an unexpected bill of nearly $1 million, district staff said at a meeting this week. The school board is planning to raise taxes to cover it.
“I am deeply concerned with the Board of Commissioners’ underlying notion that 2,000-plus Barrow school system employees and over 15,000 Barrow County students are no longer included in their definition of public safety,” said school board member Kayla Hendrix this week.
School resource officers were credited with quickly apprehending the alleged shooter on Sept. 4. A student at the school is accused of killing four people and injuring nine others.
The two governing bodies agreed back in 2017 to split the cost of the district’s 12 school resource officers evenly. Since then, the district has hired additional officers, and the county continued to split the cost down the middle.
After the September shooting, the Barrow County Board of Education decided to hire eight more school resource officers for a staff of 25. But the county sent a letter in May saying it would only be covering its half of the 12 officers outlined in the original 2017 agreement, and only until the agreement is modified at a later date.
The letter states that Barrow County’s senior citizens of a certain age and income are exempt from paying school taxes, so the county can’t pay for school-related expenses from its general fund.
“The Board of Commissioners has a duty to ensure that seniors paying their county taxes do not have those hard-earned dollars circumvented to cover costs incurred by the Board of Education,” said Barrow County spokesman Brian Stewart.
To pick up the county’s share would cost the school district roughly $900,000, on top of the $1.1 million it already planned to pay. The board tentatively decided to raise the school tax rate in the county from 15.5 mills to 15.695 mills.
“We are fully committed to maintaining our SRO program, and ensuring the safety of our students staff and our teachers,” said school board chair Lisa Maloof.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
