LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jefferson County Public Schools will gather community input on potential school security plans in January as Superintendent Marty Pollio prepares a recommendation for board approval by February at the earliest, he said Tuesday.
Pollio, in his regular report to the Jefferson County Board of Education, shared few details of the options his administration is creating as part of a district security plan, though he said the district’s goal is to provide “enhanced training” to current JCPS security monitors, arming them and assigning them to serve clusters of schools.
“We are reimagining the functions of our current security team,” Pollio said during Tuesday’s board meeting. "... They would not be in the school the entire day but quickly could respond to incidents as needed.”
Another option includes creating new safety administrator positions for JCPS middle schools and high schools, he said. The safety administrators would be tasked with taking “proactive steps” to improve security in middle and high schools, provide positive supports for students and handle threats.
“Extensive training will be the key to both of these positions with geographically-based safety officers that are employed by JCPS and well-trained administrators that know our schools, students and communities, and we believe this will comply with a state law that was passed several years ago,” Pollio said during the meeting. “These are the ideas will take to the community for feedback and input.”
The prospect of putting armed security on staff at JCPS comes amid the ongoing debate of the role of law enforcement officers in schools.
The district has been without school resource officers since the beginning of the 2019-20 school year, when 17 Louisville Metro Police officers were pulled from JCPS schools in the city’s budget, and contracts for 11 other officers were not approved in a split board vote.
Pollio's consideration of a school security team that handle schools based geographically began after he was encouraged earlier this year to discuss ways to improve security for schools outside of the traditional in-school model for resource officers.
Other districts, he said, have taken a similar approach in having officers assigned to cover schools in certain geographic areas.
"They would be accessible to the schools in any crisis situation very quickly while at the same time making sure we increase our supports inside the building, which could be new technologies," Pollio told reporters after the meeting. "We really do want to ensure that we have administrators in today's day and age that are very well trained, that focus their entire time on safety and security."
State law requires armed school resource officers to be assigned to schools depending on available funding and qualified personnel, and the community meetings led by JCPS will come as the Kentucky General Assembly convenes for the 2022 legislative session in January.
"We're going work with legislators on this," Pollio told reporters after the meeting. "I'm not taking action without making sure that especially our Jefferson County legislators feel comfortable with it."
A bill pre-filed by Rep. Kevin Bratcher, R-Louisville, and cosponsored by three other Jefferson County Republicans would require the assignment of resource officers to schools by Aug. 1 regardless of funding and hiring ability.
JCPS and the board had been in extensive talks about policies governing an internal security force at Kentucky’s largest public school district before the COVID-19 pandemic sidelined such in-person opportunities for public input.
“We believe these discussions are vital and essential,” Pollio said during his report to the school board. “These discussions that must take place in the community and with our board. They have to happen before we present any plans.”
The district is still planning the January community meetings on proposed security measures. Pollio said such meetings will likely be held weekly.
"We've got the concept we're working on, but it's going to be really critical that we get input from all over the community on this one because it is a very tense topic that is very divided at this time," he told reporters.
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