As the Hope Mills Board of Commissioners gathered Thursday night to discuss the school resource officer conundrum that has befuddled many local officials this week, Mayor Jessie Bellflowers couldn’t help but notice who wasn’t there.
“I did invite Chairman Glenn Adams, [the] Cumberland County Board of Commissioners chair,” Bellflowers said. “I invited him tonight and he did not appear. I was hoping that maybe he would’ve come or he would’ve sent a representative, maybe, to address some of the questions that are in the room.”
Instead, the sea of officials from Hope Mills, Spring Lake, Fayetteville and the Cumberland County school system in the Hope Mills town hall’s meeting room Thursday did not include a single county official. State Rep. Frances Vinell Jackson (D-Dist. 45) told the room she had spoken with Adams, who had informed her the county was holding a budget work session Thursday night.
That session was scheduled for 5:30 p.m. and was over within 30 minutes. The Hope Mills Board of Commissioners meeting adjourned at 7:44 p.m.
Those who were present Thursday included Superintendent Dr. Marvin Connelly Jr., principals from Hope Mills public schools, Spring Lake Alderman Marvin Lackman, Sen. Val Applewhite (D-Dist. 19), Fayetteville Police Chief Kemberle Braden and Hope Mills Police Chief Stephen Dollinger. Hope Mills Commissioner Kenjuana McCray was out of the country and could not attend, Bellflowers said.
The question at hand: How on earth would the town of Hope Mills provide SROs and crossing guards for seven schools after Cumberland County Sheriff Ennis Wright suddenly announced plans to remove his deputies?
‘I don’t have the answer’
Wright informed local officials of his decision to pull SROs and crossing guards from incorporated areas of the county May 21, CityView previously reported. The change will occur July 1, the day after the Cumberland County Board of Education’s $3.2 million contract with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office ends.
According to school officials, the switch will affect more than 50 schools, including campuses in Fayetteville, Hope Mills and Spring Lake.
The day after Wright’s letter, Hope Mills Police Chief Stephen Dollinger wrote a heated memorandum to Hope Mills Town Manager Chancer McLaughlin, calling the decision a surprise for all involved, including sheriff’s office employees. Dollinger said he was told the change was made because of staffing shortages.
During a Thursday morning meeting of the Cumberland County Schools Board of Education’s Auxiliary Services Committee, school board members came down hard on the decision, especially its last-minute nature. Per the school board’s contract with Wright’s office, each party was supposed to notify the other of its intention to renew or end the contract by April 15.
“The thing right [off] the bat that concerns me is our year-round programs,” Board Member Susan Williams said. “There’s a little bit of time for the others, but we’ve got year-round programs who need those people on site. I don’t have the answer.”
Connelly said he spoke with Wright that morning and was assured the sheriff would provide coverage for year-round schools.
“Well, that’s a start,” Williams replied.
Board Member Jacquelyn Brown said she couldn’t understand why the sheriff would pull crossing guards from schools.
“We have so little time to deal with it, and school is starting, and we need those crossing guards there because people don’t stop anyway,” she said. “They run over them.”
A crossing guard was seriously injured outside Lake Rim Elementary School in September after being struck by a car, ABC11 reported.
Board Member Greg West strongly condemned the decision.
“To me, this feels like the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office is solving their recruiting issues on the backs of our children and at the expense of school safety,” he said. “I just kind of feel like they’re playing chess with the municipalities and we’re caught in the middle of it.”
Williams and Board Member Donna Vann noted they were also concerned about teacher safety. As former teachers, they said, they know the reassurance that SROs’ presence can bring, especially in situations like physical fights that occur on school grounds.
Connelly told the board he hoped to negotiate one shared memorandum of understanding between all local police chiefs and the sheriff’s office.
School officials said they would have more clarity after the June 6 meeting between Wright and community stakeholders. The meeting is not open to the public, according to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, which declined to provide a list of the invitees to CityView. Bellflowers, Hope Mills Commissioner Elyse Craver and Spring Lake Alderwoman Soña Cooper told CityView they were not invited to the meeting, though Bellflowers said he plans to try to attend anyway.
‘We will get through this’
In the minutes before Thursday’s Hope Mills Board of Commissioners meeting began, Connelly could be heard telling Bellflowers, “We will get through this.”
“We will get through it, starting tonight,” Bellflowers replied.
Thursday’s meeting largely rehashed much of what the public already knew — that the announcement was a total surprise, that the Hope Mills Police Department didn’t have the funding or manpower to undertake such an effort and that the school system would be putting out a request for proposals for private security company options. Cumberland County Schools Superintendent of Auxiliary Services Kevin Coleman gave the same presentation he shared with school board members earlier that day.
“Why are we the ones that have to come up with a solution?” Commissioner Joanne Scarola said. “The sheriff’s department are the ones that had the contract. They failed. That’s a leadership failure, to drop the ball.”
Coleman noted the school system had “no forewarning” of Wright’s plans.
One new element to the conversation, though, was the spirit of togetherness that local officials described as crucial to determining a solution.
“What we’ve got to do is come together collectively to find a solution,” Applewhite said. “I think the meeting on the 6th will clear up a lot of the angst that we have. I’m not at liberty to really disclose all of the conversations that I have had, but I think we’re going to be OK.”
Connelly told the board the state provides $88,000 per high school for SROs, but all other funding must come from the county. Historically, the school system’s budget has paid for 100% of high school SROs and 50% of middle school officers, with a “4 to 1” match through a state grant for elementary school officers, he said.
Commissioner Bryan Marley noted that with the town of Hope Mills likely already looking at a 5-cent tax increase to cover the cost of a $650,000 pay study for town employees, the town would not be able to pay for its police officers to serve in schools.
“We simply don’t have the funding to get into the SRO program for Cumberland County,” Marley said. “Our police chief is pulling detectives off of cases to patrol the streets to protect our citizens.”
Marley also referenced the upcoming switch to the ad valorem sales tax method, which will cost Hope Mills $1.9 million this year and is projected to cost the town $3 million next year.
“I’m talking to the county commissioners. Rethink your process. Give us our $1.9 million back,” he said.
When Scarola questioned whether Wright had breached his contract with the school board by violating the April 15 notification date, Coleman said that the school system’s legal team was “digging into that” in preparation for the June 6 meeting.
Connelly reiterated that Cumberland County schools are safe even if SROs are not in the building, highlighting other methods in place like behavioral expectations and staff visibility.
“We believe that here in Cumberland County, our schools are safe,” he said.
Coleman added that new measures like weapons detectors, upgraded camera systems using AI and visitor ID requirements will continue to keep students safe.
Though Thursday’s meeting resulted in no official action, Bellflowers told CityView he plans to discuss some options at Monday’s 7 p.m. board meeting, where commissioners will consider the town’s official budget for the coming fiscal year.
And as he shared with the crowd at Thursday’s meeting, he is determined to find a solution.
“Leadership is having the courage to take on hard issues, and this is one of them,” Bellflowers said. “I feel confident that we will solve it.”
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.
