Safety in (the) numbers

As multiple organizations assess the need for additional school security in Shelby County, the debate has finally centered on how to fund it. On the table right now are three ideas, but none is receiving unanimous support.

Communities for Safer Schools

Mike Echols knows he’s fighting an uphill battle.

Following the December 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., Echols launched a campaign to put a School Resource Officer (SRO) in every school in Shelby County before the beginning of the 2013-2014 year. He formed a nonprofit organization called Communities for Safer Schools in order to reach the goal.

“After Sandy Hook, I sat back and watched for a little time,” Echols said. “I know a lot of people out there are smarter than me, and I said there’s no way anyone would let this take place here.”

But less than a month later, it did. In February, a 21-year-old allegedly entered Chelsea Middle School and held five female students hostage with a firearm.

Thanks to the efforts of Chelsea Middle Principal William Harper and a Shelby County Sheriff’s Office deputy assigned to the school, the incident was diffused without injury. But Echols has two children in Chelsea schools, and he wasn’t willing to wait.

Echols launched a nonprofit organization that would provide the public with a way to fund additional security forces. Communities for Safer Schools received its 501(c)3 status in April, and soon after Echols partnered with Regions Bank to collect donations for the organization. He received a couple right away, as well as support from the Sheriff’s office, but he said the Shelby County Commission and Shelby County Board of Education didn’t immediately attach to the plan.

“I really expected them to be all over this,” Echols said. “I know as well as most, the Shelby County Board of Education is not a revenue-generating operation. They don’t have profits coming in. So, if we come in and say, ‘We’re going to make you look really good,’ they’d take my information and send it out.”

But that wasn’t the case. For Echols plan to find absolute success, he would need approximately $80 for each child. Enrollment for the 2012-2013 school year, according to the Shelby County Schools website, was approximately 29,000, which includes neither Hoover nor Alabaster schools. If Communities for Safer Schools collected that $2.32 million, it could fund approximately 39 SROs at an annual salary of $60,000.

“I think what Mr. Echols is seeking to do is very noble,” Assistant Superintendent Lewis Brooks said. “I think he’s making a valiant effort. He’s a person who truly cares about what goes on in our schools. But what we feel like is important is creating options that are sustainable.”

The Safe Schools Initiative

Following the tragedy at Sandy Hook, Shelby County Sheriff Chris Curry pulled multiple deputies off patrol and assigned them to county schools. Both the event and Curry’s decision helped spark a conversation among county leaders, and it led to the recent introduction of the Safe Schools Initiative.

“We began to research what truly creates a safe school atmosphere,” Brooks said. “We actually went to a huge safety summit hosted by the State Department, and upon completion, we started putting together our information.”

School leaders including Brooks and Superintendent Randy Fuller assembled a five-point plan for increasing security in schools. They began by studying safety reviews of the school buildings, evaluating current security teams, updating school safety plans and conducting safety drills. Finally, they discussed a plan for law enforcement presence in schools.

The Initiative, in the version submitted to 280 Living, is a proposal that describes a partnership among multiple county stakeholders. Through email, Shelby County Manager Alex Dudchock said the Initiative was first introduced to the Shelby County Commission in February as a plan to put one school resource officer in each of nine school zones in the county. At maximum funding, the Initiative would collect $1.14 million and could fund 19 full-time officers or approximately 35 retired officers for nine months of service.

In the current draft, fund allocation in the plan is based on student population across 10 school zones, each of which is represented in the Initiative by a municipal law enforcement agency. Funding is divided among the Commission, the Shelby BOE, individual municipalities, the Alabaster and Hoover City School Systems and the Sheriff’s Office.

In June, Curry indicated his department’s portion is not available.

Commissioned expense

After performing his own research, Curry released a statement in June that called for the County Commission to fund the Safe Schools Initiative using its general fund, proprietary account and lodging tax account.

The sheriff’s portion is identified in the Initiative at $123,500. It was suggested in the plan for that amount to come from the Sheriff’s Fund, also known as the Pistol Fund, named as such because it’s largely comprised of money from the purchase of pistol permits.

Curry said the Pistol Fund was established by a State of Alabama legislative act and is regulated by State auditors. After receiving a copy of the Initiative, he said he contacted the State to ask if he was permitted to participate specifically as it was written.

He said he was informed that he wasn’t.

According to Curry, the Initiative asks that he use these discretionary funds to pay individual municipalities for the hiring of officers he would not empower or manage. Dudchock confirmed this was the case.

“Each respective municipal police chief will be responsible for any law enforcement officers used in school facilities in their respective jurisdictions in coordination with the school systems,” Dudchock said.

Curry also cited that the annual budget for the pistol fund over the past five years is an average of $298,000, and to remove $123,500 from it – approximately 41 percent – would diminish the department’s ability to fund other programs including drug canines, DARE, the Citizens Academy and firearms training. In addition, 25 percent of the fund is already earmarked.

“Not all monies in that account are available,” Curry said in the release. “It has to be for ‘law enforcement purposes,’ but approximately 25 percent has an additional restriction of use for jail/inmate purposes.”

However, Dudchock said the source of the funding has not been specifically dictated. 

“Any funds at the control and disposal of all entities identified as partners can and should be considered,” Dudchock said. “In a true partnership, each entity contributes what they are able to contribute from whatever resources that are available to them.”

“The plan provides additional funds to assist with school security,” he added. “The county manager is cutting two operating budgets to make available additional funds for school security throughout the county.”

Dudchock said in a prepared statement he believes it was both “appropriate and reasonable” for the Shelby County School System to ask Curry to consider partnering with funds on the school security initiative.

“Each entity has to independently decide if they want to partner and provide resources,” he said. “The additional funds, along with the existing funding related to public safety budgets, would be used for implementing school security plans and actions.”

Calls placed to Curry were not returned.

Communities for Safer Schools

Founder Mike Echols believes if $80 were donated for every child in Shelby County schools, the money could provide a school resource officer for every school in the county. For more:

• Call 747-7001

• Email saferschools@att.net

• Visit alsafeschools.com

• Search Facebook for alasafeschools.com