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Wake County Schools reports mostly positive SRO evaluations, board asks for more student and family feedback
Summary
District staff presented semiannual School Resource Officer (SRO) evaluation results showing overall positive scores; board members requested more student and family input and more qualitative reporting.
Wake County Schools' Safety and Security Committee reviewed semiannual evaluations of School Resource Officers (SROs) on Feb. 11 and heard that administrators and SROs rated the program positively, with improvements compared with the previous semester.
Juan Cortez, director of special operations, said the evaluation instrument was developed from the SRO memorandum of understanding (MOU) and in collaboration with the law enforcement agencies that supply SROs. He told the committee the district reported 79 SRO positions serving 80 participating schools: 14 elementary schools, 38 middle schools and 28 high schools. Evaluations are administered every six months to both school administrators and to the SROs themselves. "Each one of those categories... scored positively when it comes to the admin staff at the school agreeing with them meeting that expectation as set by the MOU," Cortez said.
Cortez said the evaluation collects both quantitative scores across eight categories and free‑text qualitative comments. District staff said qualitative comments often call out visibility and relationship building as areas for further attention. Committee members pressed for more student and family feedback and asked for regular reporting that combines quantitative scores with qualitative context and recommended follow‑up items.
On complaints, Cortez said the department maintains a live form on the public website for grievances about the SRO program; in his time administering the report he said the office had received one complaint and that any complaint is addressed internally and communicated to the SRO's agency leadership.
Board members also asked about measuring responsiveness — the time it takes an SRO to reach an incident — and district staff said they could explore developing metrics for response time as an additional evaluation element.
Ending: Staff said they will produce a more comprehensive report for the board combining quantitative scores, qualitative comments and follow‑up recommendations and will consider options for collecting student and family feedback more systematically.
