Weston approves SRO agreement for Imagine Charter; school to reimburse $119,235.40

The Weston City Commission on June 2 approved a resolution authorizing an agreement among the City of Weston, the Florida Learning Excellence Foundation of West Broward County (Imagine Charter) and the Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) to provide a school resource officer at the Imagine Charter campus for the 2025–26 school year. Imagine Charter will reimburse the city $119,235.40 toward the cost of the officer.

City Manager Don Decker said the city has contracted with BSO to provide school resource officers (SROs) since the 2018–19 school year and that charter schools are considered public schools under state law but do not receive school-board funding for safety. “As you know, we provide for SROs at all of the public school campuses and a charter school is considered a public school in the eyes of the state. However, they don't receive funding from the school board for safety,” Decker said.

The commission approved the measure on a roll call vote after Commissioner Melina McPhee moved the resolution and Commissioner Fabio Andrade seconded. The clerk recorded unanimous support: Commissioners Andrade, Melina McPhee, Jaffe, Vice Mayor Henry Mead and Mayor Margaret Brown voted yes.

Under the agreement, the city will continue to hold the contract with BSO and BSO will staff the SRO. The agreement mirrors the arrangement the city has with other public schools, with the charter reimbursing the city for the assigned portion of officer costs. The resolution was presented as agenda item 6a.

The vote keeps in place Weston’s practice of contracting directly with BSO to provide campus safety officers. City staff did not state in the meeting whether additional fiscal offsets or long-term budget changes are planned beyond the reimbursement amount listed in the agreement.