The new requirement through a state law adopted this year that all local boards of education place a school resource/police officer at each of its campuses was a topic before the Taylor Mill city commission last week.
The conversation followed the latest deadly mass shooting at a U.S. school when 21 young students and teachers were gunned down at a Texas elementary school. Eighteen others were injured in the May 24 tragedy.
School resource officers have already been present in some Northern Kentucky schools, including the two public schools located in Taylor Mill. Woodland Middle School and Scott High School are operated by the Kenton County board of education which shares the current cost of two SROs with the city which provides the officers from the Taylor Mill Police Department.
(Taylor Mill Elementary, which serves Taylor Mill children, is located in the City of Covington and has an SRO from the Kenton County Police Department.)
How the new school year’s partnership between the school district and the city prompted last Wednesday’s city commission conversation.
“I don’t want to do an emotional reaction to what happened,” said Commissioner Caroline Braden, “because that breaks everyone’s heart. I mean, there is nothing good about 19 children being killed, and two teachers. But it has been put before us, that it is not our responsibility, that it would be someone else’s responsibility if we don’t consent to it. Considering this is a small city, that may not seem like a lot of money, but it is a lot of money. I am not against SRO’s, I think they are great, I think they do a great job.”
Mayor Daniel Bell had his own opinion.
“In light of what happened in Texas, I think school resource officers are absolutely necessary,” he said. “My opinion is I don’t want to gouge the school board right now.”
Right now, the city and the school district split the roughly $119,000 cost per officer at Woodland and Scott.
House Bill 63, which was passed by the Kentucky General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Andy Beshear earlier in the spring, asks for explanations from school boards unable to fulfill the requirement, with the expectation that the roles will ultimately be filled.
There has never been a state mandate for cities to fund, or even to help fund a school resource officer. House Bill 63 spells it out clearly that only the local boards of education are on the hook for the responsibility of installing an officer at every school. The legislation says that boards of education can create their own police departments.
Braden said she wanted to know the reality of the situation: if the city did not pay, would someone else pick up the tab?
“I don’t think it is appropriate to put them in a bind, either for the money or for officers,” Bell said. “I think we should ease them into it.”
City Administrator Brian Haney said that to get an officer through all the necessary training would be impossible to accomplish by August.
Taylor Mill’s two SROs are Officer James Poynter, assigned to Scott High School, and Officer Charles Phillips, assigned to Woodland Middle School.
The Kenton County board of education requested a proposal from the city by the end of May.
Haney proposed charging the school district 75 percent of the cost, with the city paying for the remaining 25 percent. This would come with the stipulation that next year, the schools would pay 100 percent.
Commissioners agreed with the proposal.
