Will money get in the way of resource officers staying on at Marion County schools?

OCALA, Fla. — Channel 9 investigated whether a fight between the city of Ocala and the Marion County School District will leave some schools without resource officers.

The issue is money that the Ocala Police Department said it cannot afford to spend.

City officials said when times were tough, they cut the district a deal, but now that the economy has improved, they said it’s time the district pay the full cost.

"I think it's important to have resource officers in the school," said parent Chris Miller.

Miller said when she was in school, having a school resource officer wasn't that big of a deal.

But in the world we live in, it’s a necessity.

"For years, we have had an agreement with the Ocala Police Department to pay 50 percent of the cost of those officers during the school year, and now that is now being questioned," said Kevin Christian of Marion County Public Schools.

Ocala police provides school resource officers for the middle schools and high schools within the city limits.

Last year, the district paid 100 percent of the salaries and benefits of high school resource officers, and 50 percent of the salaries and benefits for middle school resource officers.

"The current proposal is 100 percent of the salaries, benefits and operational costs for all of the SRO's," said Ocala Police Chief Greg Graham.

Last year, the district paid more than $273,000.

If approved, this year it could cost $443,961, which is a 63 percent increase.

Although both sides are working to hammer out a deal, the school district has begun to reach out to private security companies.

“Whatever happens, we will have security officers of some way, shape or form in all of those middle and high schools before the first day of school," said Christian.

“Taxpayers are just going to have to pay for it, and I think that they should," said Miller.

School starts in about a month, and officials on both sides believe that Ocala resource officers are the best option and hope they can come up with a way to keep them in the schools.

Cox Media Group