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Beaufort County outlines plan to train Class 3 school resource officers locally
Summary
County officials described a Class 3 School Resource Officer training program to run an eight‑week local syllabus to recruit candidates (including retired military) and staff more schools; officials said they hope to start the program in June and reported starting pay around $45,000.
Beaufort County leaders outlined plans to run a local training program for Class 3 School Resource Officers so candidates could be certified to work in schools without attending the 12‑week Class 1 academy in Columbia.
A county official described a training syllabus intended to take candidates through roughly eight weeks of local instruction in partnership with local law enforcement agencies. "We would like to start this, our first class, we would like to start it in June," the speaker said, adding that the local syllabus had been reviewed by the state training council. The presentation emphasized recruiting retired military, retired teachers and other experienced residents as candidates who could train locally and be available for assignment when school starts in August.
Officials said the Class 3 designation would be a uniformed, armed position with arrest powers similar to other law‑enforcement officers assigned to school campuses. The presentation cited starting pay of about $45,000 and framed the program as an opportunity to place officers in elementary schools that currently lack dedicated law enforcement coverage.
Representatives from the town and sheriff’s office said the agencies would collaborate on training and shared a goal of staffing an SRO in every school in the county. The presenters encouraged interested applicants to contact the participating agencies and indicated they would post program information and application details on agency web pages.
The presentation was informational; presenters said the program had received preliminary approval from the state training council and that local agencies would move forward with recruitment and scheduling.
