ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County Public Schools may swap school resource officers for guardians in some district buildings next school year.
The Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act required Florida schools to have SROs or guardians in their halls.
“If we had more money, we would have given it to the agencies so that we could have SROs for our campuses,” Angie Gallo said. “We just don’t have any money.”
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Gallo is the District 1 OCPS board member. She tells News 6 that she prefers having SROs in the schools over the guardians because, despite their extensive training, guardians are limited in their ability to intervene.
“So, if a fight were to break out in one of the schools, a guardian is not able to do anything?” News 6 reporter Stephanie Rodriguez asked.
“No, they’d have to sit there and watch,” Gallo responded. “Their job is very specific in that they are only there to protect the school. In the case of an intruder, everything else that law enforcement does, our campuses, SROs, and guardians can’t do. If a student brings drugs or a weapon to school, they don’t have arrest authority. They can’t take the drugs or take the gun.”
For the 2025-25 school year, the district has a three-year agreement with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Orlando Police Department, Maitland Police Department, and Eatonville Police Department. However, they are still negotiating with Apopka, Ocoee, Winter Garden, Winter Park and Windermere.
The district proposed a rate of $72,000.
According to a letter Superintendent Maria Vazquez sent to Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson regarding the negotiations that figure is a 20 percent increase from the previous contract.
“I understand that everybody’s kind of strapped for dollars,” Gallo said. “I understand that, but we have several others that were able to make it work and ensure the safety of our students was a priority by putting a school resource officer on our campuses.”
Thirty schools would be impacted by the change, including the elementary school Melanie Bourgeois’ 6-year-old attends.
“With the landscape and the time that we live in, I would only feel comfortable having an officer,” the Winter Garden resident said.
Bourgeois said that her husband is also a local teacher, so having an SRO in the building gives her some peace of mind, so she would like to keep them in place district-wide.
“I do think that we are in a district that has so many things to be proud of, and so many things that we pride ourselves on, but it means absolutely nothing if our children aren’t safe. That’s the number one priority,” she said.
On Tuesday, the school board will hold a work session at the Ronald Blocker Educational Leadership Center at 1 p.m. to discuss the use of school guardians on campuses and flesh out other possibilities.
“To see if guardians are our only options, what else can we do? How much would it cost for, like, our internal police department to expand, how much money we’re going to be paying for guardians, and really awareness for the public,” Gallo explained. “I want [parents] to understand that this isn’t Orange County wanting to use guardians. This is if we can’t reach an agreement with the five municipalities, we have to do something. We have no choice.”
Many parents, like Bourgeois, plan to attend the meeting.
“I think it’s important for them to understand that it’s not just behind emails, it’s not just behind a phone call, this is important and there will never be a time that we won’t advocate for our kids,” she said.
News 6 reached out to all five municipalities. A common theme throughout all their statement was that they would like to reach an agreement but expect fair compensation. Bourgeois said it is confusing for parents as they try to figure out which entity is stalling the negotiations over money when the district says it is offering a 20 percent increase, while police say it is not fair compensation.
“It is not a consistent story,” she said. “So that’s the part that is quite frustrating because we don’t understand who it is we need to put pressure on.”
She also said that if SROs are not in schools next year, many may reconsider their children’s enrollment.
“Every day I’m scared to put my kid in school and something like this is deterring a lot of people already from even the idea of putting their kids in school,” Bourgeois explained.
Because the guardian training program takes 6 months, the decision must be made by Jan. 30.
The municipalities cover the following schools:
- Apopka: Apopka High, Apopka Memorial and Wolf Lake middle schools, Kelly Park School (K8), Dream Lake, Apopka, Lakeville, Rock Springs and Wolf Lake elementary schools.
- Ocoee: OTC – West, Ocoee High, Ocoee Middle, Citrus, Ocoee, Spring Lake, Thornebrooke and Westbrooke elementary schools.
- Windermere: Windermere Elementary
- Winter Garden: Hospital Homebound/Esteem Academy, SunRidge and Lakeview middle schools, Maxey, SunRidge, Dillard Street and Whispering Oaks elementary schools.
- Winter Park: OTC – East, Winter Park High and Winter Park 9th Grade Center, Brookshire and Lakemont elementary schools.
News 6 contacted the police agencies for comment regarding the negotiations. They provided the following statements:
Winter Park Police Department
“We are aware that Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) is meeting to discuss a School Guardian program. We understand their desire to explore all options for providing school safety but maintain that we are committed to providing the best service and protection to our students. We have a signed one-year contract and have already been invited to start negotiations for next school year beginning in January. We look forward to working with OCPS to reach a conciliatory agreement for the School Resource Officer Program in all of our schools.”
Chief Tim Volkerson, Winter Park Police
Windermere Police Department
“We are responsible for maintaining fiscal responsibility to the Town of Windermere, just as OCPS and other jurisdictions are to their respective communities. The average cost of employing a police officer, including salary, benefits, vehicles, and equipment, ranges from $150,000 to $180,000 per year for respective agencies. While we acquiesced to less than our initial request for the first year, it would be fiscally irresponsible to our residents to accept a minimal increase that fails to keep pace with our current budget. We want to emphasize that these discussions are part of ongoing negotiations, and we remain committed to achieving fair compensation for the services we provide.”
Chief Dave Ogden, Windermere Police
Ocoee Police Department
“The Ocoee Police Department is responsible for protecting the communities and the students attending the schools in our jurisdiction. However, we also have a fiscal responsibility to our community. The average cost of employing a police officer, which includes salary, benefits, vehicles, training, and equipment, has increased exponentially. Our agency currently provides 9 officers and 1 Sergeant as School Resource Officers (SROs). The program costs the City of Ocoee in excess of $1.5 million per year. The reimbursement for the SRO program from OCPS, in the amount of $648,000.00, does not adequately address our operational needs. The Ocoee Police Department would prefer a fully trained police officer as opposed to a guardian in our schools due to the added benefits of the enhanced training officers receive, the authority to enforce laws, and building relationships with the students and staff while performing their duties as a School Resource Officer. These benefits create a secure and legally compliant educational environment while contributing to a supportive and proactive school culture. We hope that OCPS sees the value of having officers in our schools and continues the partnership we have fostered over the years.”
Chief Vincent Ogburn, Ocoee Police
Winter Garden and Apopka police departments
Winter Garden and Apopka SRO Documents by Christie Zizo on Scribd
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