No Change in Sheriff’s Resource Deputies Assigned to Flagler Schools But Surging Costs Raise Questions

The Flagler County School District is preparing to approve a $1.38 million contract for its share of school resource deputies (SRDs) and crossing guards for the school year starting on Aug. 12, a 16 percent increase over this year’s $1.19 million contract. The amounts do not include overtime costs or any additional district security costs, such as when the school board requests a deputy more for its own security during workshops and meetings.

That did not keep a school board member from questioning some of the numbers, including a startling 68 percent increase in the cost of crossing guards and the increase in deputies’ costs even though the number of guards or deputies isn’t changing. The current average cost of a school resource deputy is $149,000, including equipment, training, salary and benefits.




There are no changes in the contract language between the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office and the district, other than some language on training requirements, or changes in the number of deputies assigned to the schools: two deputies at each of the two high schools, and a deputy at each of the two middle schools and the five elementary schools, plus a deputy at the alternative schools on the campus of Flagler Palm Coast High School.

After a short-lived discussion triggered by the County Commission’s suggestion that the formula should be reconsidered, and a proposal by the sheriff to alter the formula in accordance with prevailing norms across the state, there is also no change in the local funding formula. The county is still carrying roughly half the cost. Palm Coast carries a little less than 10 percent of the cost by paying for one of the school deputies. The district is paying the rest, drawing on a $1.35 million state allocation under the Safe Schools program. Overtime cost added some $25,000 last year, and are budgeted for $45,000 to “close to $50,000” this year, Superintendent LaShakia Moore said.

“We do anticipate that to continue to increase,” Moore said of overtime costs, “as the requirement for what we need to provide to our schools continues to grow.”

In April, Sheriff Rick Staly forwarded a Florida Sheriff’s Association survey showing that the average county subsidy to Florida school districts for security is 37 percent.




The School Board is scheduled to discuss the contract again next week (on July 9) and approve it at its meeting on July 23 and first discussed the proposal at a workshop last month, when Board member Colleen Conklin was displeased with the timing of the document’s submission, and its incompleteness at the time. “We’re in the middle of the workshop and we just got the cost list,” Conklin said. “There’s no opportunity to go back to compare this contract’s increases compared to last year. We can’t see where the increases are. I’m not happy again of getting the contract on the day of the contract, and we don’t even have the contract.”

The superintendent acknowledged the inconvenience but said the board still had time to analyse the document until the July meeting. Still, Conklin noted the increases: In 2022, she said, “our contract was $944,000. It is now with no change in personnel, no addition in personnel, it is now $400,000 in addition to just two years ago. I want to know where this $400,000 is being spent, and on what.”

One of the additional costs is the additional deputy the district is using at the alternative school. Moore said retirement costs have also increased. As for school crossing guards, that cost also jumped from $127,000 just last school year to $214,287 this coming year, resulting in the 68 percent increase.




“Our former finance director, when she provided those numbers in previous years, was inaccurate,” Sheriff’s Chief Mark Strobridge said. “There is a change as a result of that, there is the actual cost of what it is for school crossing guards.” Conklin did not look convinced.

“I don’t have a problem paying the crossing guards a decent wage at all, please don’t misunderstand me,” Conklin said. “What I’m saying is I’m trying to understand it’s the same amount of people, it’s nine and nine, and there’s a hundred thousand dollar difference.”

“That’s why she’s our former,” Strobridge said of the agency’s finance director. He applied the same reasoning to the larger increase in deputy costs. “Unfortunately, special risk people continue to climb every year so they can pay for these new programs.” The Legislature, he said, reduced the needed years at retirement, for special risk personnel, from 30 to 25, creating additional costs.

“We’re going into the next school year in the negative,” Conklin said, referring to the district’s position overall, “and this contract comparatively is a significant increase and no changing for staffing or personnel.” Conklin asked if the county was paying less: it isn’t. If it were to reduce its share, the district’s cost would be closer to $1.5 million, Strobridge said. The Sheriff’s Office also has contractual agreements that provide 3.9 percent cost-of-living increases on top of the merit increases the deputies get. “It adds up very, very rapidly,” he said, with the starting pay for a sheriff’s deputy now at $60,000.

“We’d like to get our teachers there,” Conklin said. “I love our SROs. I love our SRDs. We couldn’t do what we do without them. Truly, truly. If anything I’d love us to have more of them in our schools. It’s just a frustration not having all of the information.”

Moore said the latest legislation left the door open for the state’s funding formula to change, potentially increasing the district’s share, especially with the county considering altering its share. The formula penalizes safer communities by allocating them fewer dollars than communities with a higher crime index. “Because we are a safe community, that does not mean we don’t need appropriate allocations in order for us to fund our requirement, in order to have a safe-school officer in each school.”