NKY school district obtains $61K to pay for its first School Resource Officer

SOUTHGATE, Ky. (WXIX) - The Campbell County Sheriff’s Office and Southgate Independent School District are teaming up to ensure the safety of students and staff by hiring a full-time Student Resource Officer.

The new partnership will cost the district a little over $61,000 for an SRO to be on campus at Southgate Public School during school hours with a patrol vehicle parked out front of the school, according to Superintendent Greg Duty.

This will be the district’s first SRO, Duty added.

“The school district is very excited about adding a full-time school resource officer to the Southgate Team,” the superintendent said. “The safety and well-being of our students and staff continue to be a top priority in our school district. We look forward to the positive relationships that the new SRO will be able to build with our children, their families, and the entire school community. We appreciate the new partnership with Sheriff Mike Jansen and his team.”

Under Kentucky law, it is required for all schools to have at least one SRO on-site during normal school hours after House Bill 63 passed out of the General Assembly and was signed by Gov. Andy Beshear in 2022.

While the bill went into effect in August of that year, the superintendent says the district did not have enough money at the time to hire a full-time SRO.

“We get about $22,000 per year for Safe School Funds from the state, and the total cost for an SRO is over $60,000 for one school year,” Duty explained. “We had to secure the funding before we could proceed with getting a full-time SRO.”

The Memorandum of Understanding says the officer will be on-site during the 2023-24 school year.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it and include the headline of the story in your email.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2023 WXIX. All rights reserved.