BY CAROL MOSLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
BROOKER — Brooker Community School is preparing for the safety of students and staff. About 30 residents gathered for the recent workshop on safety resources, along with the school’s board and the new principal, Dr. Felecia Moss, to hear from Sheriff Gordon Smith.
Board Secretary Jerome Kelley, expressed that “security is paramount.” This meeting offered the chance to identify all the safety factors to consider and present a realistic picture of the physical and financial challenges in meeting those needs.
Sheriff Smith assured everyone that safety will be a top priority, and he guaranteed they’ll have a resource officer assigned by the time the doors open to students. But he let them know that it will be important to recruit school guardians to be always on site. If a resource officer is on a call or all the way in Starke, it is a long way to get to Brooker.
Smith pointed out that is often the guardians who are the ones that put an end to an incident.
The school should have three guardians in addition to an assigned resource officer. The school would need to expect a salary of about $70,000 per year, including insurance and benefits, for a deputy resource officer.
Guardians, on the other hand, are made up of school staff, including teachers, who volunteer. Their identity is kept secret. Guardians must undergo a three-week process of preparation, including training and a psychological evaluation. The next session begins on June 6.
The sheriff’s office provides a $1 million liability insurance policy for each guardian and provides the training and the weapons. But Sheriff Smith pointed out that passive security measures such as securely locked doors, steel doors without glass, doorbell locks and alert systems are also important deterrents to have in place.
That reality check was sobering, but not insurmountable. The school will receive a fee per student from the state, amounting to $17,800 for 116 students. Smith pointed out that the board of county commissioners covers 72% of the deputies’ salaries. He suggested residents appeal to their district commissioner as well as the others since it takes three out of five votes to approve.
He said they are generally apt to fund requests for the benefit of children.
