City to negotiate GISD SRO agreement

As the city of Graham begins diving into its budget, it will be discussing the renegotiation of the Graham ISD Student Resource Officer cost split as well as the potential of an additional officer.

Graham City Manager Eric Garretty presented to the Graham City Council two options during their first budget workshop Tuesday, Feb. 17. 

The city council voted to restructure the SRO program to provide for two officers and establish a formal contract with the school district. Several council members voiced that they were in favor of keeping the program and negotiating its restructuring with GISD.

“I'm going to assume that the school is going to be receptive. Things are different than they used to be. We all know that,” Council Member Jack Little said. “We all know the school system is vital to our city and to our community, and I would think that the school is going to do what they have to do to make this happen. We need to try to see what we do make it happen because those are our kids.”

The proposal from the city manager includes a cost sharing model with the salaries, social security, retirement, medical insurances, workers compensation, unemployment, uniforms and gear, fuel cost, student handout materials, required training and a portion of the vehicle lease.

“The SRO supports the ISD and is one of the 20 police positions that we budget for each year. The total cost to the city for this program… is $84,000 a year. The ISD reimburses us $34,000 a year. The city subsidizes 60% of the cost for school security for another taxing entity,” Garretty said.

The total cost for two officers under the proposal is $207,850.89, with that cost split between $111,872.83 for the current SRO and $95,978.06 for a new SRO. 

Under the proposal, the school would pay $155,888.17 for two officers, while the city would pay $51,962.72.

The city manager said both he and the police chief said that the position has outgrown one officer. Garretty said that with the size of the district, numbers of students and potential threats, it is unfair to have one officer bear that burden.

“The current school resource officer is engaged throughout the year (with) 2,100 students on call, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That's one officer across the five campuses,” Garretty said.

The other proposal from the city manager was the elimination of the position and bringing that officer back to the police department.

“(That would) provide the opportunity for the ISD to establish its own security program. This is not unheard of. Many schools have their own police departments and their own chief of police,” Garretty said. “In addition, in larger cities, they impose a tax to fund the school resource officers through what's called a Crime Control Prevention District.”

GPD Chief Brent Bullock said if the SRO was pulled back into the department he would be assigned to community outreach and crime prevention. 

The chief said the department previously had a Crime Prevention Unit that had programs such as a Kid Cop Academy for children in kindergarten through third grade.

“When I became chief six years ago, one of my goals was to add a secondary SRO. We've had one officer in the school since 1993 and one officer only,” Bullock said. “I've spoken every year for six years (with the superintendent), starting with the prior one to Dr. (Mary) Johnston, and they've all been receptive, but that's as far as we've always gotten.”

The city manager said there is no formal contract with the district for the school resource officer.

“The only document we could find was a one-page document that was only signed by the chief of police at that time that said the city will provide an SRO and the ISD will reimburse 50% of the salary. Not 50% of the total cost, 50% of the salary,” Garretty said.

GISD CFO Gary Browning said SRO Blake Davis is a vital part of the operations and safety of the district as well as its focus on safety.

“He is crucial for us. I think it's a crucial component of the connection between the school district and the community, because he knows our students so well and works with many of them on a daily basis,” Browning said. “He's able to build a bridge between the school district, our city operations, our police department and our community.”

Browning said the district spoke with the city manager recently about the proposal from the city and said an agreement for the position had been created in the past.

“I think it has been an agreement that has been carried forward over a number of years, over a long period of time, that originated from an original contract,” he said. “That contract has not been updated, revised or revisited in a while.”

Garretty said Tuesday that the two entities said the first step was to get direction from the city council on something that could be presented to the school board and further negotiated. 

“Council is going to have to tell me and the chief what to put in that contract that we have to have for school resource officer services, if we're going to continue, (along with) what goes in that contract, what the parameters are, what the costs are,” Garretty said. “Then that will then fairly allow the superintendent to turn around and present that to her board for consideration.”