Schools Struggle to Comply With Armed-Officer-at-School Law

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(TNS) – Multiple Houston-area school districts say they can’t staff all of their campuses with armed district police officers as the upcoming school year begins, forcing them to seek alternatives to comply with a new state law addressing school safety.

Texas lawmakers passed House Bill 3, which goes into effect on Sept. 1, during the most recent regular legislative session. It mandates that districts must have a district peace officer, school resource officer or a commissioned peace officer at every school during school hours and establishes other safety protocols and requirements.

Several local school districts, including Houston ISD, already have a police officer stationed at every middle school and high school, and they also have additional officers who rotate among several elementary schools. Soon, every district in the state must have one armed officer stationed at every campus, leading to a significant expansion of the police force in some districts.

With about three months’ notice, districts throughout Texas have been desperately competing with each other — along with local city police departments and other law enforcement agencies — to try to hire enough officers to station at every campus amid a nationwide police staffing shortage.

To comply with the law, some school districts are increasing incentives for applicants to join their ranks, including by raising officer base pay and implementing shorter contracts. At least one school district says they are recruiting cadets to join their district straight out of the police academy.

HISD state-appointed superintendent Mike Miles said the district plans to expand its police force by 166 officers, but it’s going to be “very difficult to achieve.” To recruit more officers, the district announced in July that it was increasing the salaries and sign-on bonuses for police officers this year, raising the pay for a 12-month contract from $59,091 to $63,800.

Some district and police officials are simply admitting that no matter what they do, it’s not possible for them to hire enough police officers within the time period. Dan Turner, Alief ISD’s chief of police, said he previously was having problems filling a few vacant police officer positions before HB 3 passed, and now he is trying to hire at least 32 new officers.

“There’s all these school districts in the state of Texas and charter schools and whoever else trying to hire police officers or armed guards at once,” Turner said. “I just don’t see where we’re going to be able to meet that mandate come Sept. 1 because those officers just aren’t out there to hire.”

Districts can claim an exception to the law if they do not have enough funding or qualified police officers to comply with the law. However, a district’s board of trustees must create an alternative plan, such as having school marshals or qualified employees to serve as police officers.

Miles said HISD would be asking the appointed Board of Managers to take action on HB 3 during the board’s next meeting and indicated the district would be seeking an exception. The next scheduled regular board meeting is on Sept. 14, after the law goes into effect.

“The law allows districts to have an exception if there are too many (unfilled) positions,” Miles said. ” The Legislature anticipated that large school districts, for example, would have a hard time putting a police officer in every elementary school. … We will follow the law and will provide the exceptions granted by the law.”

‘Minimal’ state funding for extra police

State lawmakers passed the legislation partly in response to a school shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde last year, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers.

In addition to mandating armed officers, HB 3 requires annual intruder detection audits, evidence-based mental health training for certain employees, and active-shooter training for their officers at least once every four years.

It also provides $15,000 per campus and an additional $10 per student to fund all the security upgrades. Some school districts say that funding is not enough for all the required expenses and leaves them on their own to resolve funding gaps that are exceeding well over $1 million.

Sherry Williams, director of strategic communications for Fort Bend ISD, said the district has 15 open officer positions, nearly 20% of the officers required for its 80 campuses. The district needs about $2.5 million to hire all the additional officers but it only received $1.4 million from the state.

According to Fort Bend ISD, it will be impossible for the district to hire all of the needed police officers before Sept. 1, partially due to the funding shortfall. The district is looking into contracting with an external firm or asking the Board of Trustees to call a bond tax rate election known as a VATRE to cover the extra costs.

Matthew Rodriguez, chief of police for Spring ISD, said the difference between the “minimal” state funding from HB 3 and the district’s funding needs is approximately $1.7 million.

“It’s a substantial gap,” Rodrigue said. “The term unfunded mandates has been thrown out quite a bit across the state of Texas. It’s very difficult to say that, effective this date, with almost no time to prepare, you have to have an officer at every campus.”

Spring ISD’s school board approved the hiring of nine extra officers in June with the funding from the state, increasing the number of Spring ISD officer positions to 75, but that still leaves 21 campuses without a permanent officer, Rodrigue said. The board also agreed to an exception to the law for the district for both funding and personnel reasons.

Spring ISD is aiming to put trained police officers at every school over the next five years, Rodrigue said.

Spokespeople for some local districts, including New Caney ISD and Magnolia ISD, say they already have an armed officer on each campus and won’t need to seek an exception to the bill. Others, like Katy ISD, say the district’s school board is expected to address compliance with the bill at their upcoming board meetings by the end of this month.

Rory Gesch, deputy superintendent of operations for Alvin ISD, said his district has enough officers to station at every campus at the start of the school year, but they’re still recruiting for more officers. Illnesses or other unexpected emergencies could mean there isn’t someone available to cover every campus on a certain day, he said.

“The analogy I give, because we’re in education, is we have campuses staffed with 100% of teachers but virtually every day of the school year we’re calling in (substitute teachers) and then there are days that all the subs are used and we have to do something else on that campus and we have to make it through the day,” Gesch said.

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