ORLANDO, Fla. – The Orange County school district is resuming contract negotiations with five municipalities to maintain school resource officers on 30 campuses.
The negotiations, which begin Tuesday and are not open to the public, involve the cities of Apopka, Ocoee, Windermere, Winter Garden and Winter Park.
During a meeting last month, the school board urged the district to continue working towards a solution that keeps resource officers in schools.
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“We will have students that are in those five municipalities that will not want to go to those schools because they do not believe that the guardian is the safest option,” school board member Angie Gallo said.
Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) has proposed a three-year plan to increase salaries, starting at $72,000 and rising to $75,000.
The five cities involved have argued that the offer is insufficient, which has prompted the district to consider employing guardians, who have limited authority in handling situations.
The school guardian program was created to help districts comply with security mandates that came about because of the Parkland school shooting in 2018.
The legislature passed the program as part of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act.
Torrance Rhodes, a parent of two students at Ocoee Middle School, expressed his concerns about the potential lack of an agreement between the school district and police department.
“I think they must reach an agreement. There’s no doubt. We’ve got to have protection for our kids,” Rhodes said. “It shouldn’t be a question. It shouldn’t be negotiated. Our children’s safety cannot be negotiated.”
Gallo has previously said that an agreement would need to be reached by February as it typically takes six months to train people through the school guardian program.
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