The Greensboro City Council decided not to pay $500,000 for the school resource officer (SRO) program in Guilford County Schools at the virtual budget work session on Tuesday, June 9.
It is probably the opening salvo in what will become a battle with Guilford County.
It should come as no surprise that because of recent events, Councilmember Michelle Kennedy has made a line item-by-line item inspection of the Police Department budget. Some of her ideas for reducing the police budget were shot down by fellow councilmembers, but one proposal that Kennedy did get a consensus on was to stop paying $500,000 a year to fund the SRO program in Guilford County Schools.
The total budget for the SRO program is about $1.6 million a year and Guilford County has been paying Greensboro about $1.1 million a year for the program, which assigns a police officer to every high school and middle school in the city.
Kennedy said, “I have an extreme concern about police in schools and it’s not something that the City of Greensboro should be spending its resources for.”
Kennedy said that the SROs contributed to the “school to prison pipeline.”
Councilmember Marikay Abuzuaiter objected to being blindsided with the proposal to stop funding SROs and said she needed more information before making a decision.
She said, “Having not known about it and just finding out about it now really leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”
She said that if there had not been an SRO at Smith High School, a lot of students would have been killed.
Kennedy said that she was not talking about doing away with the SRO program, which is a Guilford County function, but that it was “another example of the City of Greensboro paying for costs that are associated with Guilford County.”
Police Chief Brian James said that Guilford County does pay the cost for the 17 officers in the schools, but that Guilford County didn’t pay for the supervision of those officers and other costs that amounted to about $500,000.
Councilmember Tammi Thurm said, “I do think the county needs to pay for the services they receive from us.”
Councilmember Justin Outling agreed and said, “This is their service, their function.” He also noted that this was not a decision about the value of the SRO program but a decision about whether the city wanted to continue to pay for something that is a county service.
Mayor Nancy Vaughan, who joined the meeting while in progress, said that the city needed to give the country a heads up on its decision because the contract came up for renewal in August and the county needed to be aware that the city did not plan to continue to subsidize the SRO program.
She added, “I will go along with this 100 percent because I’m tired of picking up the additional costs.”
Councilmember Goldie Wells asked that it be discussed with the county first and added, “I don’t think our parents in the city are going to like it.”
There was some discussion about notifying Guilford County of the decision and Hightower said, “It will be in the Rhino for sure.”
It’s difficult to follow the informal votes at regular City Council work sessions, and nearly impossible at a virtual work session but it appeared that the only no vote on ending the $500,000 subsidization of the SRO program was Abuzuaiter.
Nope let the city council provide Councilwoman Johnson and her group the $500,000. What is the cost to this council of a child receiving physical harm or worse with the lack of an SRO on the property? Any blood shed at a school where an SRO was, shall be on the hands of the city council.
Suggestions – Why not use the $500,000 you gave to councilwoman Johnson and place here group in the schools?
When are we the citizens of Greensboro going to see this groups results and effectiveness in the community?
Was this just money provided to a “ friend” by friends of the council with NO accountability?
Does High Point pay for SRO ?
High Point City PD has their own officers in the schools within their city limits.
This is outrageous. Protecting children in schools as well as staff should be a number one priority. School fights and assaults on teachers have been on the rise. We need more SRO’s in schools not less.
Years ago, the city wanted the merger with the county schools, and they got it. Mainly for the money that went into the county schools.
If the city wants to be in a city/county school system, then, they have to pay their share of the costs for the operations of the schools, which includes SRO officers. The city can cut costs on other items within their budget which some call wasteful spending.
The best thing to do is get rid of the this city council and mayor, and elect others that will put the citizens of Greensboro’s needs first, especially the children.
The Rhino should publish where the city leader’s children go to school, and the security their children have or will have.
I would love to know what price the leaders of Greensboro will put on a child’s life, and what will they say to the deceased child’s parents?
The idiocy of Greensboro political heirarchy is laughable. That is a direct result of the voting public. Never, ever, overestimate the intelligence of the average American voter.
It’s time to DRAIN THE SWAMP OF GREENSBORO!!!!! The SRO officers in my opinion are ESSENTIAL WORKERS!!!! We need them to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves. Who are the idiots that voted to place these people on the city council? Please raise your hands so I’ll know who to blame when the first child gets seriously hurt or worse!
Michelle Kennedy is an anti-police disgrace and a hypocrite. The fact that she is even in an elected position reinforces the fact that this city is circling the drain. I will debate her and anyone else on what is REALLY causing the mythical classroom to prison pipeline in this County. It aint the police Michelle
Well said Marc – they are all responding to a narrative of a misinformed vocal minority that somehow wants to throw out the baby with the bath water. Are some cops bad? Yes, we have also heard of bad doctors and nurses that kill patients – maybe we should defund the hospitals!! Sad state of affairs – and of course, if you don’t support defunding the police then I guess you are now a racist…
Our Mayor opens mouth to change feet, again. Mayor, we are tired of picking up the cost of a whole lot of additional costs; most of which lie outside the realm of essential services, such as police, fire, civil engineering, etc. Buy hey, it’s not your money, it is my money that you extort from me every year. On another note, the near-perfect solution to murders on school grounds (like what is in govt buildings now), is the presence of armed guards, metal detectors, limited access points. That alone is the solution to almost all school shootings. And yet, what our Mayor wants is to defund school guards. The LEFT know this, but fails to consider it, as it would eliminate their narrative about gun control.
I have said over and over again that the Greensboro City Council needs sensible intelligent white men on the council. White men are not represented and it show extremely well that we are NOT being heard. This is complete sexist and racist in its most extreme form. Can’t the citizens of Greensboro understand how this is hurting our City.
Really quite simple. Guilford County should continue with SRO in schools outside the city limits. Let Greensboro decide on their SRO program. Delusional City Council.
When did Greensboro stop being a part of GUILFORD COUNTY?
I remember when the SRO program was started. It was started with a grant from the state and the Guilford County Sheriff’s‘ Office provided the officer’s to ALL high schools in Guilford County. You may be wondering how the Greensboro Police Department became involved. They asked to be a part of it. The program was a model for other SRO programs throughout NC as well as other states. Greensboro wanted GPD officers in their (again when did Greensboro succeed from Guilford County?) schools. One of their reasons was that the students needed to see officers in blue and not tan since they would see GPD officers more often when away from school. I never was an SRO but I did work closely with them-in a Training Sergeant capacity. I saw how students acted when around them and it wasn’t any type of reaction from fear. There is no way of knowing or measuring the effect that SRO’s have had on students nor how many lives were and will still be changed. I’m sure there are other ways of reducing the budget, but, this is not one. This is just pandering to the left.
If you do remove this program, who you gonna call when you have a situation of violence or any other serious events. Of course it will be Law Enforcement but at what cost?
But are the kids being affected not city residents?? How is it a “service to the county” when the children are in city limits?
Yes, there are many children who are not city residents that are affected by this, including one of my children. Several of the schools in city limits also have Early College Academies and other special programs. We do not live in Greensboro, but my son attends an ECA at a school within Greensboro city limits.
I have witnessed the SRO at that school interact with all of the students. The students do not look at him with fear. They joke around with him and treat him with respect.
If Greensboro is cutting this money from the budget, they need to completely remove their schools from Guilford County School District…..especially since most of the GCSD money for infrastructure repairs gets funneled to the Greensboro schools instead of the schools further out that are shouldering the majority of the tax burden.
let the parent of each school pay for the security, direct payment at start of each year , you don`t pay ya kids cannot stay in school there.