What qualities are needed in a school resource officer and program?
That was a question posed to the Cumberland County Board of Education at Thursday’s budget workshop.
Is it the ability to communicate with students, teachers, school administrators, parents and the community? Is it to keep students safe and reduce student-related incidents?
“They should all be together,” board member Susan Williams said. “That’s my personal opinion.”
She wasn’t alone.
“It takes all entities working together. You can’t just separate them. It takes all entities working together,” said Jacquelyn Brown, another board member and an at-large representative.
The comments were part of a presentation by Richard Watkins, consultant with Science Policy Action Network. He is working with Fayetteville City Council members to help design a school resource officer program for the city high schools.
Keeping parents abreast of what’s happening in the schools is important, Williams said.
“We have parents who are finding out what’s going on through the kids. The parents should always know what’s going on,” she continued. “The parents are the stakeholders here, but there has to be an understanding.”
Until this year, school resource officers were provided by the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office for Cumberland County Schools. In May, Sheriff Ennis Wright announced that he was pulling deputies working as SROs in local public high schools in municipalities in Cumberland County.
Watkins will present his findings to the city in February.
Budget for upcoming fiscal year
In another part of Thursday’s work session, the board was briefed on items included in the budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year.
Jay Toland, associate superintendent of Business Operations, talked to the board about the decisions members will have to make in planning the budget for the coming school year.
One is likely to deal with supplement pay for teachers and classified employees.
The state provides supplemental funds based on the tax levels of each county, in an effort to boost the competitiveness of the job market in smaller counties. Urban counties with more affluent property tax bases tend to be able to contribute more to supplemental teacher pay than rural counties with less wealthy property tax bases, according to an EdNC report.
“We’re facing an uphill battle with state supplements,” Toland said.
Budget allocations are designated in accordance with the county’s general fund, which is used for daily expenditures and operations. Some of those funds are restricted and can be used only in certain areas. Another pot of money goes into the fund balance without any restrictions.
Currently, the school system’s fund balance is little more than $20 million, Toland said.
Capital outlay funds are used for maintenance, property acquisitions and renovations or repairs.
The school system’s budget for the current fiscal year is $602 million.
Budget workshops will start in early January, according to Toland.
The proposed budget must be presented and approved by the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners before June 30, which marks the end of the fiscal year.
