After almost two months of discussion, local officials are on the verge of an ultimate fix for Cumberland County public schools’ school resource officer issue, according to school system personnel who spoke at a special meeting Wednesday of the school board.
Local municipalities have been scrambling to fill the void left by Cumberland County Sheriff Ennis Wright’s abrupt decision to pull school resource officers and traffic control officers from public schools within other municipalities’ limits. Wright attributed the change to staffing issues.
With the start of the traditional school year just over a month away, Wednesday’s meeting signaled a light at the end of the tunnel. With the exceptions of board members Carrie Sutton and Judy Musgrave, who were not present, the board unanimously approved a memorandum of agreement with the town of Hope Mills, a draft agreement with the city of Fayetteville, and a letter to be sent to Cumberland County Board of Commissioners Chairperson Glenn Adams requesting funding from the county.
Under the terms of the agreement with Hope Mills, the Hope Mills Police Department will provide five school resource officers — one SRO each at South View High School and Hope Mills and South View middle schools and a “rover” who will alternate coverage between the town’s four elementary schools, according to Associate Superintendent of Auxiliary Services Kevin Coleman. The fifth SRO will serve as a supervisor and fill in for any absent SROs, Coleman said.
The Hope Mills Police Department will also provide 11 traffic control officers — different from crossing guards because they have the ability to direct traffic — and will be reimbursed by the school board for those costs, Coleman said.
Mayor Jessie Bellflowers beamed as he told school board members the SRO and traffic control officer roles had already been filled.
“We’ve got everything in place,” he said.
Board members and school system employees applauded Bellflowers for his town’s efforts to address the SRO vacancies.
Meanwhile, with the Fayetteville City Council scheduled to meet at 3:15 p.m. Thursday to discuss SROs, the board approved a proposed memorandum of agreement for the 2024-25 school year with the city of Fayetteville. Under that agreement, the Fayetteville Police Department would provide up to 25 SROs, two SRO supervisors and 67 traffic control officers.
Coleman warned that the Fayetteville Police Department would not be able to reach that target in the coming school year.
“We’re going to start the school year with approximately six SROs for the city schools,” he said. “According to Chief [Kemberle] Braden, his estimate, it’ll take approximately two years to get fully staffed at this point.”
As with Hope Mills, the school system will also reimburse the city of Fayetteville for its SRO costs and for initial traffic control officer costs, Coleman said. It is not clear yet what those costs will be, though City Manager Doug Hewett estimated in a meeting last month it would cost the city just under $5 million to provide SROs and traffic control officers.
Until schools in the city of Fayetteville have full SRO staffing, SROs will be assigned by geographic area rather than by individual school so they can rotate between schools, Coleman said.
How it all adds up
According to Coleman, this is how the school system will fund SROs and traffic control officers for Hope Mills and Fayetteville:
- For the first year, the schools will fund 100% of the traffic control officer positions.
- In the second year, the schools will fund 75% of traffic control officer positions.
- In the third year, the schools will fund 50% of traffic control officer positions.
- In the fourth year, the schools will fund 25% of traffic control officer positions. That will be the final year of board funding for traffic control officers.
- The school system will fully reimburse the city of Fayetteville and the town of Hope Mills for the cost of SRO salaries and benefits.
- The school system will provide $3,000 per SRO to the city of Fayetteville and the town of Hope Mills for initial equipment costs.
Because the board has not previously funded traffic control officer positions — those roles fell under the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office — it plans to send a letter to Adams requesting county funding for those jobs. The draft letter approved by the board did not specify an amount for that funding, but Coleman estimated the total cost for traffic control officers to the school board would be about $500,000.
As CityView previously reported, the school system issued a request for proposals for private, unarmed security guards for its schools last month. Coleman said Wednesday the school system received six proposals and had narrowed it down to three options, which will be presented to the board at its August meeting. However, private security cannot take the place of SROs, he noted.
“It would be less service,” Coleman said. “That’s the decision we need to make. Is it worth the money to do that?”
What about other municipalities?
Coleman said the sheriff’s office has agreed to provide SROs for the town of Spring Lake for the 2024-25 school year.
“They have massive shortages and, working with the chief out there, quite honestly, they could not provide us any support at this time,” he said. “Since this arrangement is only for one year, alternate plans will be made for the 2025-2026 school year.”
Spring Lake schools don’t require traffic control officers because they aren’t in areas with heavy traffic patterns, according to Coleman.
In unincorporated areas of the county and in the small town of Stedman, which has a population of just over 1,000, the sheriff’s office will continue to provide SROs and traffic control officers, Coleman said.
Board of Education Attorney Nick Sojka said his team will forward the proposed memorandum of agreement to the city of Fayetteville so the city council can consider it at Thursday’s afternoon meeting.
Reporter Lexi Solomon can be reached at lsolomon@cityviewnc.com or 910-423-6500.
This story was made possible by contributions to CityView News Fund, a 501c3 charitable organization committed to an informed democracy.
