Taylor Mill commissioners voted last week to accept the contract negotiated with the Kenton County School Board for the 2022-2023 school year to keep the two Taylor Mill School Resource Officers in Scott High School and Woodland Middle School.
The vote came just weeks before a state-imposed deadline to have officers in schools by August 1.
But the decision was not without contention.
“The safety of these children and this staff is very important to all of us,” said Commissioner Rose Merritt. “So it has been mandated by the House Bill that these school districts are now responsible for these SROs. It also says that nothing in the bill should be interpreted or construed to require local governments to fund the SRO positions. That is what has changed this year.”
City Administrator Brian Haney said he has been trying to negotiate a contract with the school district for this first year after the new ruling, knowing that the commissioners wanted to have the school district increase its portion of the total $119,000 cost of the SRO officers to 75 percent, or $89,000.
When he brought the contract to commissioners, he had negotiated that the school district would pay $67,000. They had been sharing the cost 50/50, which meant each party was paying close to $60,000. He also said they have to negotiate the next year’s contract in January, and other cities would be invited to join them.
Kenton County Schools are located in multiple cities and unincorporated areas in the county.
“The school district had just negotiated with Villa Hills for their contract, so they wanted to keep the contract for our SROs the same as they have with Villa Hills for this year,” Haney said. “That’s how we arrived at the $67,000 number.”
When House Bill 63 passed earlier this year, it was mandated that all schools had to have an SRO on campus all the time.
Two amendments to that bill did not pass. One was to earmark $74 million to help the school districts fund school resource officers, and the other was to allow two schools on one campus to be considered as one so that there didn’t have to be two SROs if the district couldn’t afford it. Scott and Woodland share a campus in Taylor Mill.
Merritt said she felt the situation was unfair.
“The small city of Taylor Mill, with a $5 million budgeted income last year, chose to fund 50 percent of those SRO’s last year, because we want those students safe, we want that staff safe,” Merritt said. “Well now, the state has mandated that the school district, whose budgeted revenue, my understanding is, was well over $100 million, should pay for the SROs. We all look at that campus, we know how much money is there.”
Scott High School is in the final phase of a major renovation.
Commissioner Mark Kreimborg agreed with what Merritt said.
Commissioner Dan Murray said he thought the contract was the best way to do things this year, and renegotiate in January.
Murray said what is unfair about the whole system is that the sheriff’s office and the school board are contributing to the SROs in other schools, and he wanted to know why they couldn’t help Taylor Mill with Scott and Woodland.
Commissioner Caroline Braden had a different approach.
“For me it is all about the budget,” she said.
Braden said that the contract requires a renegotiation in January, but she noted that both parties have to agree to the terms and she was sure the school district was not going to agree to pay more than this year, so the odds that they would agree to a bigger portion of the cost for the SROs is less than minimal. She asked City Attorney Jack Gatlin if they could put a caveat into the contract stating that the city intends to only pay 25 percent of the cost next year, whether they agree to the contract or not. Gatlin told her they could probably put that into the contract.
Bell thought they ought to approve the contract since, as Haney said, it is the eleventh hour, and an agreement has to be in place by Aug. 1.
“I think we should go with this agreement for one year, and I don’t mind including what Caroline said about changing the agreement to say going forward we only do 25 percent,” Bell said. “I think my gentle spirit says we should support this this year and let the cards play out. If we don’t decide to do this, it puts us in the same category as Covington, and I’m not comfortable with that. I am not comfortable with saying at the last minute we’re not going to do this.”
He also said he talked to Kenton County Chief Operating Officer Rob Haney, who told him that Kenton County’s school tax is one of the lowest in the state. Haney could not be reached for comment.
When it came time for a vote to support the contract, Mayor Bell voted yes, Commissioner Murray voted yes and Commissioner Kreimborg voted yes. Commissioners Merritt and Braden voted no, but later Gatlin said that he would rework the second section of the contract to put an automatic termination clause in it, instead of an automatic renewal clause, which makes a renegotiation more mandatory.
