A request to fund one of the positions for one year was made to the Blountstown City Council, which was unanimously approved. “We can’t thank them enough. The Council, the Mayor, the City Manager, and Chief Mallory just jumped in and supported our request without hesitation. We have a true debt of gratitude for all they did to help us protect our children in the schools”, said Danny Ryals of the Calhoun County School Board. The support from the City will completely cover funding for the SRO position at Blountstown Elementary School for a period of one year, during which the School Board intends to lobby for further funding of the SRO positions
An identical request was made to Board of County Commissioners to fund the SRO position for Carr School, which did not receive a motion to support. During the meeting, Mr. Ryals stated, “Commissioner Bailey offered 5K of his own salary toward the funding of the position if the School Board members would each do the same”, which Commissioner Gene Bailey corroborated during a phone interview. Furthermore, he stated, “It isn’t that this matter isn’t a priority to us. It is. This is a very important issue. But after making 150K in cuts already in order to balance our budget, we couldn’t fund the position without having to raise taxes. That just wasn’t something we could do at this time.”
The denied request sent the School Board back to consider other ideas. After reviewing a number of options, they decided to use a variation of the proposition made by Commissioner Bailey. In 2008, and every year since then, School Board members voted to have 10% of their salaries set aside into a fund that has been used to pay for scholarships, special trips, and a number of other items and events, all for the students in the Calhoun County School system. That fund had enough money to provide a loan to the school district that will fully fund the final SRO position for the one year period in the initial request.
Thanks to the diligence and dedication of our School Board, the City Government, and all those that made this effort successful, the children in our community will each be allowed to attend school with the comfort of knowing they have an officer there, making sure they stay safe. School Resource Officers are a true asset to our communities for many reasons, to include: crime prevention, quick response to problems, enhanced safety for children and staff, and fostering positive student/police relations. When asked why he supported these efforts so vehemently, Police Chief Mark Mallory stated, “We deal with a lot of volatile situations, angry parents, custody issues, and so much more that people don’t always see. The threat is the same across each of our schools, and each of them deserves equal protection. It’s so important to have the presence of law enforcement there keeping the children safe”.
By working together to find a viable solution to what could have been a tremendous problem, the children and community have scored a major win, thanks to these dedicated community leaders.
