The overview
GCISD’s board of trustees approved a partnership with the cities of Grapevine and Colleyville to employ a full-time school resource officer, or SRO, at every school on Aug. 7.
Grapevine Police Department will be responsible for schools within its city limits as well as Bear Creek Elementary School in Euless. Colleyville’s department will place SROs in all schools located within its city.
“Safety is paramount to all of us, including our city leaders and city officials,” said GCISD Superintendent Brad Schnautz. “We are blessed to live in this community [and] to have leaders who support our schools and who work in a true partnership with us.”
The backstory
This decision is from the implementation of House Bill 3, which requires all school districts to have at least one armed security officer present at every district campus during school hours. Districts will receive $15,000 and $10 per student for school safety initiatives.
“While I’m happy to be providing another layer of protection for our campuses, I am not happy it is yet another unfunded requirement from the state,” Trustee Mary Humphrey said.
GCISD is also applying for a grant from the Texas Education Agency to help comply with new school safety mandates for security systems, software and equipment.
The details
Per the new agreement, GCISD will pay Colleyville approximately $304,500 for eight SROs in the 2023-24 school year. The city of Colleyville will absorb the remaining costs, the agreement stated.
For Grapevine schools, the district will pay about $732,00 for 10 SROs and a sergeant to supervise, assist and serve as an SRO when needed, the agreement stated. The city of Grapevine will absorb approximately 50% of the remaining expenses. Each agreement is good for one year and all SROs will begin their work immediately, district documents stated.
“We are so blessed to live where we live,” said board President Shannon Braun. “The fact that we live in an area where we’ve got two cities that are willing to jump in and help us with these costs is unbelievable.”
