Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School Security topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Pearland ISD renews SRO interlocal and approves three armed-guard vendors to provide full‑day campus coverage
Summary
The board approved a three‑year interlocal with the City of Pearland for school resource officers and authorized administration to work with three ranked armed-guard vendors to provide eight‑hour armed coverage at elementary and middle schools; trustees pressed for vendor experience, continuity and coordination with Pearland PD.
The Pearland ISD Board of Trustees on June 24 approved a three‑year interlocal agreement with the City of Pearland to continue the district's School Resource Officer (SRO) program and separately authorized administration to work with three top-ranked armed-guard vendors identified through a competitive RFP.
District staff said the SRO interlocal maintains roughly 11 SROs and one sergeant (the contract reverts to 1 sergeant after a prior temporary second sergeant used to manage an off‑duty rotation). The district reported continuing an 83% / 17% cost split for SRO program costs (the district pays 83 percent), including equipment and training. Staff displayed projected contract costs that start near $1,480,000 and grow to about $1,600,000 in later years of the three‑year cycle; staff told the board the total district cost for 2024–25 including the extra sergeant and off‑duty rotation was about $1.78 million and that adopting both the interlocal and district‑contracted, full‑day armed guards would raise total security costs to an estimated $2,140,000 — an increase of roughly $366,000.
Administrators said the district issued a request for proposals for armed-guard services to provide eight‑hour armed coverage at 11 elementary and four middle schools to supplement SRO coverage and meet the state security expectations in recent legislation. Fourteen proposals were received; staff and the district security team shortlisted three firms on qualifications, reputation and cost. The board authorized administration to proceed with the top three ranked vendors — Jet Security, Good Guard Texas and Esprit de Security (agenda listed a vendor name with differing spelling; Trustee Scheffler requested correction to "Esprit de Security") — so the district can work with the vendors to confirm capacity, continuity and final scope. Staff said the recommended approach is to approve the vetted vendors so the district can select and deploy the best fit(s) and to maintain alternate options if a vendor cannot meet contracted obligations or coverage needs.
The RFP required that contracted armed guards be licensed through the Texas Department of Public Safety and hold firearm certification, active-shooter response training, de-escalation and threat-assessment training, CPR and emergency-protocol training, annual continuing education and range qualifications. Staff said many of the proposed guards are former police officers or military veterans and that background checks equivalent to those used for district employees were required in vendor proposals.
Trustees asked detailed questions about continuity (whether the same guard would be on a campus each day), supervisor structure for contracted guards, how district principals will report problems, interaction protocols with school administrators and Pearland PD, and whether the state safety allotment covers the increased cost. Administration said continuity and fill rates were considered in evaluations but may differ between vendors; contracted guards will report to a vendor supervisor and district safety staff (Mr. Palumbo, Mr. Ordono) for operational issues. Dr. Berger said the district expects an increase in state safety funding under recent House Bill 2 but that the allotment will not fully cover all added security costs and the district will still fund part of the program from local resources.
Trustee Stuckey moved to approve working with the three ranked vendors and to proceed toward contracting; Trustee Stuckey (second) — the motion passed 7–0. The board separately voted 7–0 to approve the City of Pearland interlocal agreement for the SRO program.
Administration said next steps include negotiating final vendor contracts, confirming vendor capacity for consistent campus assignments, performing background checks and onboarding, coordinating vendor supervisors with Pearland PD and regional law-enforcement partners, and returning to the board with final contract documents or if substantive changes are required.
