The Flagler County school district is paying $142,500 a year for security at its relatively new alternative school on the campus of Flagler Palm Coast High School–an alternative school with just two teachers and an average of 20 students per quarter, some of them virtual, and that operates only four days a week.
The deputy’s cost is standard, whether that deputy operates in schools or on road patrol. But this was not a sheriff’s issue. The board has been intent on operating a stand-alone alternative school quite literally at all cost even though remote learning and previous practice provided less expensive options. The district had closed its alternative school on the same campus several years ago because of financial constraints.
The School Board wanted the additional deputy at its alternative school, which is starting its second year, even though the cost of the deputy is well above the combined cost of two starting teachers–in essence, more costly than the cost of the teachers at the school.
Notably, the district last year closed its i3 New Tech Academy, a forward-looking school started a decade ago with 90 students and designed to give students who don’t necessarily have a natural fit on larger campuses a chance to thrive in the smaller academic community. It was also on the Flagler Palm Coast High School campus. Its enrollment shrunk over the years but it still had a following. It was eventually displaced by the alternative school.
The new security cost is part of the School Board’s$1.2 million contract with the sheriff for 13 uniformed personnel, one more than last year.
A 14th school resource deputy paid by Palm Coast government is not included in the district contract, nor is an additional deputy paid for through the budget of Imagine School at Town Center–still tax dollars, but through different contracts.
The school board and the County Commission split the cost of the school resource deputies, which added up to $1 million before the alternative school cost. But the school board is picking up the entire cost of the new deputy–it’s not been made clear why–in a year when district reserves are running low, when the district’s finances in general are not in the best shape, and when they’re poised to get worse as the state drains district budgets to subsidize private-education vouchers for anyone who asks. The vouchers are worth $8,000 per student per year.
The $142,500 figure includes benefits, equipment and training costs. The deputy would serve during summer school as well. Rise Up operates Monday through Thursday. On Fridays, the deputy would operate as a floater at other school sites, or filling in for absent deputies elsewhere.
Rise Up is designed to enroll students generally for 45 days. While it served a total of 82 students last school year, it only served 16 in the first quarter, 23 in the second, 31 in the third, and 35 in the fourth. Averaged out, that was 20 students per quarter, including its online-only participants. The school has capacity for 40 students–in person and online: many students in that category are not allowed on campus.
School Board member Colleen Conklin said the voucher system should give the district the opportunity to step back and ensure that only students who want to be in the district are taught there. “I think we just need to be having a conversation about how do we ensure that public schools are and will be high quality and safe environments for our children,” Conklin said at the une workshop when Rise Up was briefed to the board. “And if you don’t want to be here, you don’t want to participate, if you don’t want to learn, then here’s your ticket. Here’s your government voucher. Go somewhere else, you have another opportunity.” The cost of that deputy was not discussed at that workshop.
The district has one school resource deputy in each of its schools, and two deputies in each of the two high schools. Schools are in session for 179 days. Deputies are on campuses for 183 operating days. The rest of the time, they operate in the community, except for the new deputy operating at the alternative school. That one will be available to the district the full calendar year.
The contract calls for a commander, a sergeant and 11 deputies to be assigned to the district, plus nine crossing guards. The crossing guards will cost $127,000. Should the district need additional deputies for any reason, the hourly rate would be $48, up from $42.
The district is changing its color-coded alert system. No more code red, no more code blue, no more code green. Instead, the district and the deputies will invoke a “standard response protocol,” an initiative of an organization called the I Love U Guys Foundation. The district describes the standard response protocol this way: “Like the Incident Command System, the SRP utilizes clear common language while allowing for flexibility in protocol.” (The clear, common language eludes the description, or this two-page explanation, which may require a little study time to grasp.)
The district elected not to start an additional program using armed civilians as “guards” in schools, opting instead to rely on the sheriff’s professional law enforcement–but leaving the door open for adopting an armed-civilian program (in addition to sheriff’s deputies) in future years.
The School Board approved the new contract late last month. Palm Coast is approving its policing contract with the sheriff–what will be its 24th contract in 24 years–next Tuesday. Palm Coast government and the Flagler County School Board are the two local agencies with the largest policing contracts with the sheriff. Contract negotiations this year were significantly smoother than in previous years.
In Palm Coast, the $7.2 million contract will maintain the same number of deputies next year as this year: 48, including one commander, three sergeants, two corporals, and 41 road deputies, plus that school deputy and a 49th deputy paid for through the city’s Town Center budget. The total value of the contract reflects a $700,000 increase which accounts for cost of living pay increases and extra costs for retirement benefits.
“We did do a rollback, and a lot of our departments have been asked to just kind of redress their budgets and see if they can give something small to the cause,” City Council member Theresa Pontieri said, referring to the council’s decision to do what it’s never done before: adopt a rolled back tax rate that will cut $2.7 million from revenue it would have otherwise generated, had it kept the tax rate flat. The rollback took the city administration by surprise, since its budget had already been prepared based on a flat rate. It required departments to cut their budgets. Most did. Law enforcement was not touched, however.
“I know our chief Berryhill endeavored to do that,” Pontieri said. “So I would just ask that, if there’s anything that can be given to that effort from Flagler County Sheriff’s Office that you all, maybe just work with us in that regard, if it hasn’t already been done.” The budget the council is set to approve next Tuesday reflects the same $7.2 million figure presented at last Tuesday’s workshop.
Mark Strobridge, the sheriff’s chief of staff, told the council that the budget represents the first year of a five-year plan that is now part of a more comprehensive approach that includes the cities and the county. This year the sheriff requested the addition of five deputies, and only from the county, to increase staffing at the county jail. But further increases in the ranks are expected in future years as the agency seeks to attain what it says are necessary ratios in line with the county’s population and the demand for services.
“The one place that I’m struggling with is that city council members are regularly assaulted, correctly assaulted by the community on LEO presence,” Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin said, using the acronym for law enforcement officers. He is seeking more police visibility in the city.
Greg says
CRAZY. Money to burn