Board of Education OKs resource officers for schools
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on February 4, 2014 1:46 PM
The Wayne County Board of Education approved funding of four school resource officers at 21 schools in the district and paid tribute to the late Sheriff Carey Winders, who had championed the addition.
"We applied to the (N.C.) Department of Public Instruction for a grant. Our late sheriff worked very hard on this," said Dr. Steven Taylor, schools superintendent. "This is a contract we'll get from the state to put additional school resource officers in our middle and elementary Schools."
The board voted Monday night for two contracts, in the amount of $79,035.01 for the Sheriff's Office and $26,345 for the Goldsboro Police Department.
Three SROs will rotate between 13 schools, including Brogden Middle, Brogden Primary, Carver Elementary, Eastern Wayne Elementary, Fremont STARS Elementary, Grantham, Mount Olive Middle, Northeast and Northwest elementary schools, Rosewood Elementary, Rosewood Middle, Spring Creek and Tommy's Road elementary schools.
One officer from GPD will rotate duties between Carver Heights, Meadow Lane, Dillard Middle, Eastern Wayne Middle, Edgewood, Greenwood, North Drive Elementary and School Street Elementary schools.
The school board also expressed appreciation to the late sheriff, who died Jan. 24 after an apparent heart attack at his home.
"Carey was a friend to the schools," Board Chairman John Grantham said. "We were lucky to have him as sheriff for so many years."
"Sheriff Winders wore many hats in this county, one of which was school safety," Taylor said.
Board member Arnold Flowers said Winders, a personal friend, left a lasting impression on the county and the school system.
"When this grant came along (for resource officers) he worked very diligently to try to get that grant for us," Taylor said, noting that the sheriff had even made a pitch to the commissioners a few days before his passing, on Jan. 21. "As Mr. Flowers said, he does have a legacy here. He will be missed."
The superintendent also said an announcement is forthcoming about handling of school make-up days due to last week's ice and snow storm.
County schools were canceled on Tuesday due to the impending weather, which arrived later that evening and pre-empted classes for the remainder of the week.
Taylor said it's always a "judgment call' in making the decision to dismiss school and said he would rather call off school and not need to than to risk student and staff safety unnecessarily.
Since school just resumed Monday and it was also a board meeting day, no determination had been made about how make-up days would be handled.
"The staff will meet (today) and we'll be looking at some options, with the school calendar guidelines," he said.