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Board hears progress report on safety tax-funded investments; staff warns of remaining gaps
Summary
Chief of school police and safety staff described investments funded by the district's voter-approved safety tax since 2018 and identified remaining needs, including adding five school resource officers and cellular/radio signal boosters at some schools.
Fayette County's chief of school police told the board the district's voter-approved safety tax has funded major changes in school safety since 2018, including cameras, secure vestibules, threat-assessment tools and additional school resource officers. "We've made great strides in student support," Chief Rodney Schafer said, summarizing the District Safety Advisory Council's recommendations and the district's investments.
Chief Schafer said the district has moved from no elementary-school officers in 2018 to a model that now places at least one officer in every middle school and teams of officers at high schools. He also highlighted an expansion of school-based mental-health staff and a reduction in counselor-to-student ratios.
Staff told the board that parts of the safety work are now funded from both the dedicated safety tax and the general fund. Chief Schafer and staff said some safety needs remain, naming five school resource-officer positions that have not yet been authorized and a need to install a bidirectional amplifier (BDA) or repeater at some campuses to shore up police radio coverage. They also noted long-term maintenance and data-storage costs tied to an estimated 6,000 cameras across the district.
Board members asked specifically about recurring costs: who will pay for camera maintenance and for the storage and retrieval of video and whether the safety tax should continue to cover items that now "bleed" into the general fund. Staff said they would provide an itemized follow-up showing how much of the general fund is supporting safety functions and the annual maintenance and storage estimates for the camera/video systems.
Chief Schafer also described preventive and relationship-building activities by school resource officers, including examples of officers serving as coaches and mentors. "These high school officers get to interact daily through the building and then also, as a coach, mentor," he said.
Administrators said the safety tax revenue in the reported year was roughly $18.6 million, with about $9.4 million spent so far and the remainder planned for the year. Staff warned board members that some safety-related costs — for safety personnel, technology lifecycle replacement and insurance — are rising and will need continued budget attention.
