MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — Since the tragic Parkland school shooting in 2018, it has become routine to see school resource officers on campuses.
Seven years after the tragedy, how much does school safety cost?
It's a topic that has the Martin County School District and the sheriff's office at odds right now.
"School safety should be the priority, and if you're not safe coming to school, then we've done something wrong," Sheriff John Budensiek said.
The sheriff said that being a school resource officer takes a special kind of person.
"You have the tough cop part that can take care of an active shooter, and then you have the individual who can help a child out of the car on the first day of school and help them onto the curb and assure them that life is going to be OK," Budensiek said.
Now, the sheriff is asking for an additional $2.1 million from the Martin County School District to fund the school resource officer (SRO) program.
"They're proposing a 63% increase, and that hit us from out of left field a little bit," school district spokesman Derek Lowe said.
He said the district has a great relationship with the sheriff's office, but in times of decreased enrollment and increased costs, they have to be fiscally prudent.
"Our budget doesn't operate like a normal checking account," Lowe said. "Within our budget, our pit of money if you will, there are buckets that we can only spend a certain percentage of that income on certain programs."
Under state law, the district is responsible for fully funding a school safety program. Right now, it covers just $3.2 million out of what the sheriff says cost him $7.85 million this year, adding that figure will go up to $8.4 million next year.
WPTV pressed the sheriff about his budget request.
"We're asking for, in the big picture, less than 1% of their school budget to keep our youth safe, to keep our students safe," Budensiek said.
At Tuesday night's school board workshop, board members, who will make the final decision, only touched on the issue briefly. There was some discussion of raising the millage rate and looking for other cost savings.
A decision must be made soon, as the current SRO contract expires at the end of June.
