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District presents SRO and after‑hours security contract changes that cut roughly $813,918 from safety contracts
Summary
Security director said the district negotiated contract changes that convert North State patrols from two to one overnight officer, shift to 10‑month SRO contracts and move some positions to unarmed security; staff presented savings estimates and answered questions about incident rates and pepper‑fogger language in contracts.
Chad Williams, the district’s director of security, briefed the board on June 10 about fiscal‑year 2025‑26 contracts for school resource officers with the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, Kernersville Police Department, and the after‑hours security contract with North State.
Williams said the sheriff’s office contract for SROs would drop from an initial FY24‑25 value of $4,732,610 to a proposed FY25‑26 figure of $4,088,136, a projected savings of $644,474. The Kernersville Police Department contract would fall from $717,264 to $602,421 (savings of $114,843). The district is also moving from a 12‑month to a 10‑month contract for those law enforcement positions, which Williams said better matched the school calendar and reduced cost. For its after‑hours contract, the district proposes switching North State from a company police officer model (armed company officer with arrest powers under contract) to unarmed security officers for routine overnight patrols, retaining company police officers only for board meetings and special events. That change was projected to reduce the North State cost from $180,091 to $125,490 (savings ~$54,601). Combined, Williams said the three contract changes represent a $813,918 reduction for 2025‑26.
Board members asked operational questions: Vice Chair Bohannon asked for the North State nightly hours and whether the contract covered seven nights per week; Williams said the guard works a 7 p.m.–5 a.m. shift and currently the district has transitioned from two officers per night to a single officer on many nights. Board member Kane pressed about how many sites the overnight officer visits and whether that staff answers alarms; Williams said the officer responds to alarm calls and late‑to‑close notices and otherwise patrols properties, and that the contractor is expected to prioritize alarm responses when they occur. Williams said the use of North State has reduced vandalism and burglaries since it started.
Board member Kane asked about mechanisms for timely communication between law enforcement and the district when arrests or incidents occur outside school hours; Williams said informal daily or near‑daily information exchanges occur between district staff and law enforcement partners and that sometimes the district hears of arrests in the middle of the night via texts or calls from sheriff’s office personnel.
Board members also asked whether pepper fogger (chemical dispersal) language was in the sheriff’s contract; Williams confirmed the sheriff’s contract includes language describing fogger use and that sheriff’s personnel have reduced use of foggers compared with prior years while continuing to treat them as a law‑enforcement tool of last resort.
Ending: Williams recommended the board approve the contracts to realize the projected savings; board members said they wanted incident‑rate metrics, patrol coverage data and continued follow‑up on fogger use as part of their oversight.
