LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Some security guards at Jefferson County Public Schools have expressed interest in becoming armed safety officers for Kentucky’s largest school district.
John Stovall, president of Teamsters Local 783, said Monday that some members of his labor union have inquired about the hiring process for the new safety officer positions approved Thursday by the Jefferson County Board of Education.
JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio said JCPS would hire 30 armed safety officers, who would primarily patrol school grounds in their vehicles in assigned geographic regions based around high schools, as part of the district’s new $7.3 million security plan. Stovall has little insight into the hiring process until the jobs are posted, he said.
“They may be able to provide something that an outside police agency couldn’t do because they've got a familiarity with the kids, the school, the district,” Stovall said of the roughly 175 JCPS security guards represented by Teamsters Local 783.
The district’s security guards see the new security plan as “a step in the right direction,” he said.
“I think they’ll feel like they have someone behind them when they need it because they can share stuff with a police officer: ‘Hey, I have certain things going on in this school, this is what I'm hearing,’” Stovall said. “... It’ll be a resource and a tool for them.”
The district will pay its 30 safety officer positions — 15 of which will be reclassified security monitors — salaries of $55,211 per year. That’s more than the $52,500 salaries new officers at Louisville Metro Police will make under terms of their latest labor agreement, which was approved by Metro Council in December.
“They had to be in the ballpark,” Stovall said of pay for school safety officers.
JCPS will also hire 66 school safety administrators, who will be tasked with handling security threats and developing relationships inside schools, as part of its security plan.
Safety administrators will earn $74,514 per year and work in every middle and high school, though 12 schools will be assigned two each. Every assistant superintendent at the elementary level would get two school safety administrators each.
Though safety administrators will be tasked with developing trusting relationships with students and staff inside schools, Stovall said he hopes school safety officers will get similar opportunities to interact with those they’re assigned to protect.
“When they bring these police officers in, have them communicate in school, have team-building exercises so the kids get to know them” as someone they can “confide in and talk to,” Stovall said.
Pollio said after Thursday’s meeting that he hoped to have safety administrators in place by the beginning of the 2022-23 school year and safety officers enrolled in state law enforcement training as soon as possible.
The district’s security plan calls for safety officers and administrators to complete 60 hours of district training per year. Safety officers would also need 40 hours of state training per year.
Stovall hopes the district’s officers complete their state training during the summer so they can be in place for the start of the school year.
He’s also among those who believe officers should primarily work inside schools, and he believes most in JCPS agree with him.
“The majority of people in the district would rather have somebody in that building if they have kids there that they know can protect their students and their children,” Stovall said. “... I still think it’s a step in the right direction, and if it’s utilized the right way, it can make a difference.”
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