School Superintendent Dr. Merv Daugherty is asking the board for an extra $17.5 Million over last year. That’s a 2.7 percent increase. Though there’s not much change from the previous budget, Daugherty is seeking some new items which fall under the “unfunded needs and priorities category.” One of those is for new School Resource Officers or SROs to be placed in elementary schools. Currently, SRO’s are only in middle and high schools. However, he says the number requested from the County School Safety Task Force is too high. “We know that asking for 38 Resource officers is out of the question.” Instead, Dr. Daugherty is asking for seven SROs to be placed in five schools per week, then rotated throughout the county. The cost of this would be $630,000 dollars the bulk going for the purchase of cars. The public will get to weigh in at various district meetings beginning this month through early February. After that, the Board is scheduled to approve it and then send to the Board of Supervisors.
Ian M. Stewart previously was the transportation reporter and fill-in anchor for VPM News.
