Florida County Looks for More Funds for School Security

The state, the School Board and the Sheriff's department battle over funds for school security.

• By Sydny Shepard
• Apr 25, 2018

A Clay County sheriff is passionately asking for more funds to cover the costs of staffing and equipment associated with having and SRO in each of the Clay County schools.

Sheriff Darryl Daniels spend several hours at a Clay County School Board meeting Monday afternoon discussing how to pay for the new school security. It was at this time that he told those in the room that he would be open to arresting any local official if officials don't help to find funding for the schools.

Clay County is $1.8 million closer to finding funds needed to cover the cost of adding SRO's to 44 public schools, but according to Daniels, that still leaves the county millions of dollars short. Daniels said his agency will need $4.5 million to comply with the new Florida state law that says all public schools need SRO's on campus.

Daniels said the law doesn't include penalties for county commissions or school boards that don't comply, but he'd be willing to enforce it.

"If they’re violating the law, it doesn’t matter what their job description is; I wouldn’t even hesitate," Daniels said after the school board meeting.

The county commission's $1.8 million, which still needs to be voted on, would be a one-time allocation and even combined with the state's money of $1.5 million, it still leaves the county several million short of what Daniels says they need to hire 30 new deputies.

“I think we have a clear vision in reference to what we have to do as a school district,” Clay County Superintendent Addison Davis said. “I know we’ll have to look and see what additional reserves we have or what additional revenues we can generate to make this happen. We will be prepared for day one in Clay County. We stand confident by that.”