City Council on Tuesday evening will consider how to spend the nearly $800,000 that used to fund the School Resource Officer program.
In early May, the majority of city council members decided during an add/delete budget session to remove $789,909 from the Alexandria Police Department budget, which specifically funded the SRO program. The program put police officers in Alexandria City Public middle and high schools. In addition to responding to fights and other incidents, the police worked to develop positive relationships with Alexandria youth.
The money for the SRO program in May was set aside in a special fund, and city council must vote on how to spend that money after city staff and representatives from multiple departments weighed in.
Recommendations listed in a presentation attached to the Tuesday, July 6 city council docket include:
- $101,000 for the development of new mentoring programs and the establishment of a Mentoring Institute, in which caring adults in Alexandria will be trained in mental health first aid, building assets, youth development, and drug and alcohol usage prevention and child abuse prevention.
- $122,000 for a public health nurse at the Minnie Howard campus of Alexandria City High School.
- $122,422 for a therapist supervisor to rotate between Minnie Howard and the City’s middle schools, who will serve as consultant and partner in the development and implementation of alternatives to suspension programs as well as other evidence-based initiatives in addition to multiple other roles.
- $117,199 x 2 for two senior therapists to provide evidence-based early intervention groups and other therapy for students and families.
- $98,654 for a human services specialist who will focus on prevention and early invention and more
- Additional funding for a licensed senior therapist who will focus on emergency services.
In late June, during a City Council School Board Sub-Committee meeting, city staff provided a presentation on the proposed use of funds to provide support services to ACPS students. “ACPS staff and representatives of the ACPS School Board indicated that they were receptive to the positions and student services proposed by the City and would likely be able to provide on-site accommodations to the staff in these positions. School Board representatives stated that they would like more time over the summer and fall to review these proposals with the School Board and ACPS leadership and instructional staff to ensure that the proposals address student needs in the school system,” according to a memo from City Manager Mark Jinks.
“In addition, the Schools have indicated that they are working on costing and identification of security related operational and physical changes to the high school building which they feel they need to make, and which will have an unbudgeted cost.”
Students return to school buildings Aug. 24. Most students have been out of school for more than a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and students will be coming off of their shortest summer break in years due to a calendar shift.
It is unlikely that experts for all of the proposed positions will be hired by the time students return to school buildings, and ACPS is rushing to provide updated training to its own security officers.
The decision to remove SRO funding in early May was, in part, in response to a movement for police-free public schools that has gained steam nationwide in the midst of conversations about racism, equity and the role of police in our society. Council Members Mo Seifeldein, Canek Aguirre, Elizabeth Bennett-Parker and John Taylor Chapman voted to reallocate the funding. (Seifeldein and Bennett-Parker are leaving council after this year.) Council members Amy Jackson, Del Pepper and Mayor Justin Wilson voted to leave the funding in place. The ACPS School Board had voiced a desire to keep SROs in the schools and some members were surprised when council voted 4 – 3 to override the school board’s decision.
“I agree with what is needed. I don’t agree with how it happened,” wrote Council Member Jackson on social media. “School Board decision. Not Council’s. Let the SB run schools.”
Alexandria is not alone in re-evaluating its relationship between police and schools, but it is the only Northern Virginia jurisdiction to end the program entirely.
Arlington County is removing SROs from school grounds and renaming them Youth Resource Officers. The officers will still provide educational services. Arlington’s decision came after a year-long conversation between police, the school board and community members.
Fairfax County, the City of Falls Church, Loudoun County and Prince William County all have SROs.
To watch the Tuesday, July 6 City Council meeting (starts at 5 p.m.):
Registration link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mYxZ__XPRFaZai9qhx_BXAWebinar ID: 976 0202 5815Webinar Passcode: 656479Dial-in number: 301-715-8592
Interested residents can sign up to speak at: https://survey.alexandriava.gov/s3/2020-VIRTUAL-City-Council-Speakers-Form.
