Officials agree to increase school security on The Murfreesboro Post

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Officials agree to increase school security

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By: MARIE KEMPH, mkemph@murfreesboropost.com

Posted: Sunday, February 17, 2013 12:00 am

Officials agree to increase school security | School Resource Officer, RCSO, Rutherford County, County Commission, Public Safety, Education, Taxes, Will Jordan, Brad Turner, Steve Sandlin, Ernest Burgess, Robert Stevens

Teacher Holly McCrary (left) discusses student behavior with School Resource Officer Chris Templeton and fellow teacher Chris Hooper on Feb. 15, 2013, at Whitworth-Buchanan Middle School in Murfreesboro, Tenn. (TMP Photo/M. Willard)

The Rutherford County Commission overwhelmingly voted Thursday to support hiring a full-time school resource officer for every elementary school but did not commit to a property tax increase in order to fund the proposal.

Citing the need for “fiscal responsibility,” Commissioner Robert Stevens successfully argued that the $1.2 million proposal should go through the budget process before committing to a 3-cent property tax increase.

With three of the 21-member County Commission abstaining from the ballot, 18 voted to endorse the concept and discuss the matter further during upcoming budget negotiations for the next fiscal year.

“We might have to vote for a property tax, but we do not know that yet,” Commissioner Brad Turner said, adding it would be unfair to publicly support hiring 11 full-time officers for Rutherford County elementary schools only to oppose a tax increase later this year.

“We could find it in the budget … I just cannot say – before we even begin negotiations – that I would ever vote for a property tax increase,” Turner said, during a regularly scheduled monthly meeting in downtown Murfreesboro.

The decision comes only a week after the Rutherford County Budget Committee endorsed the proposal but also halted efforts to pass the plan due to financial concerns.

The proposal is under consideration at the behest of the Rutherford County Public Safety Committee, which asked Sheriff Robert Arnold to determine how much it would cost to add officers in light of the December 2012 deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Arnold found the proposed increase in officers would cost $1.2 million, in addition to the roughly $300,000 already needed for two full-time positions at the recently completed Stewarts Creek High School.

In total, Rutherford County officials would need to spend $1.5 million in start-up costs. Those funds would be allotted to pay for the additional salaries and benefits, as well as the required training fees and equipment for each officer.

That amount would then reduce to an estimated annual cost of $583,000.

As part of the endorsement, Mayor Ernest Burgess has agreed to include any tax increase needed to pay for the officers as a separate line item in any proposed budget so that the full cost is known during the budget process.

Even though it would cost roughly 1 cent to fund after the first year, Burgess has said the remaining 2 cents of the tax increase is needed for other purposes – meaning the higher rate would be permanent.

“This is part of a much larger puzzle,” Burgess said during a recent Budget Committee meeting in reference to the upcoming negotiations. “We have to look at the total outcome of this.”

Given the situation, Commissioner Matthew Young said he believes fellow members have delayed the inevitable because there are other projects, including construction of a new Rutherford County Judicial Building, coming up for consideration as well.

“If we are going to vote for officers in schools, then we are voting to raise property taxes by 3 cents,” Young said, adding many constituents have told him they want the proposal passed.

“We might as well spend the money,” he said. “We just need to do it.”

Despite his objections, Young ultimately voted in favor of waiting to decide on how to fund the plan.

Tagged under Brad Turner, County Commission, Education, Ernest Burgess, Public Safety, RCSO, Robert Stevens, Rutherford County, School Resource Officer, Steve Sandlin, Taxes, Will Jordan

Member Opinions:

By: Me123 on 2/17/13
Seventy million kids go to public schools every day in this country, and they do that 175 days a year. Unfortunately, about 12 of them will die of violence in school each year. How does that justify a million dollars for police officers in schools?

By: 2livecrew on 2/18/13
you can't stop crazy like what happended in sandy hook. our leaders are to lead not by emotion but by rational thinking.

By: 2livecrew on 2/18/13
if they are thinking like this- then why don't lawmakers make if a felony and mandatory minimum 10 years in prison when a drunk driver kills someone?

By: SLSmith on 2/18/13
To assume "crazies" are the killers makes no sense at all. It takes a lot of rational thought to pull off getting guns and knives into schools and planning on how to do the most damage. It also takes training and access to those deadly weapons.

"Crazies" use their emotions to to hang on to beliefs and traditions which make no sense at all.

What is any one person going to do against an AK47?

By: yogiman on 2/19/13
There has been bullies in schools since time began, and usually there was always a "good boy" that would "whup" the bully.

And I have know many boys that were bullies in school that entered their adulthood as good law abiding adults.

And they would laugh at most of their childhood activities.

By: postlooker22 on 2/20/13
one person would do a lot more with a gun than without a gun, against a AK-47. If they have no guns and someone has an AK, whoever is there will get hurt or worse.

By: jee2t_MTSU_S13 on 2/21/13
This article makes some very well thought out statements in regards to the need for schools to be a safe environment for learning and childhood growth. The issue is not whether or not our county and the school system of the United States in general, should be a safe environment. That is a statement I do not believe anyone would refute. I think that Rutherford County is being fiscally responsible in that they recognize that the need for security in our schools is something that we cannot avoid in our modern era but that it should be factored into the budget and not automatically assumed that taxes should be raised to pay for such a need. The problem with the points made by the members of the county legislation is that it seems as though they are hedging their bets in case the cost of the increase in officers for the elementary schools is deemed “too high” and then vote down the proposal since they opted to wait instead of casting a vote on the initiative. While I applaud the city council for paying attention to costs, three cents on property taxes is not too much for a sense of security for the kids in our school system. I agree with Commissioner Young, that, “We might as well spend the money…We just need to do it.”