By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
Safety and security at three of the local public school district’s campuses will be bolstered by off-duty sheriff’s deputies thanks to a new agreement between the district and sheriff’s office.
The San Felipe Del Rio CISD’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved an agreement Monday night between the district and the Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office to provide licensed peace officers working as deputies at three of the district’s campuses for the 2022-23 school year.
According to the agreement, those deputies would provide police security services at Ruben Chavira, Irene Cardwell and Buena Vista elementary schools. They would work at those schools during their off-duty hours at a cost of $40 an hour, according to the agreement. There was no discussion regarding how many deputies each campus would get nor when they would begin working with the district.
The school district also agreed to pay Val Verde County a $15,000 yearly administrative fee for each campus for the use of the deputies.
The idea for off-duty sheriff’s deputies to supplement the school district’s own police force came from conversations held between the district, county and city in the wake of the tragic school shooting in Uvalde in May that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
At a special budget workshop in June, the district announced it would hire one new lieutenant and eight new officers for this school year to help beef up the district’s police force and provide additional security for campuses. But until those new officers could be hired, trained and state-certified, the district said it would look at hiring off-duty city of Del Rio police officers or county sheriff’s deputies.
Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez said he had spoken to his deputies and, at the time, his patrol officers said they would be willing to use their off-duty hours to aid the district.
“I’ve spoken to (school district police chief) Chief (Joe) Faz and Dr. Rios a couple of days ago, and we’re committed to doing whatever we need to do to keep our community safe. So, out of the 47 officers that we do have, I took a poll today of just the patrol division, which is 21 officers, and I’m still waiting on responses from four, but the ones I talked to, they’re all willing to step up to the plate and keep our schools safe,” Martinez said at the workshop in June.
Monday night, board member Amy Haynes made the motion to approve the agreement with Rebekah “Becky” Luna Chavez seconding, but before a vote could be taken board member Josh Overfelt asked for an explanation as to why the district was paying the $15,000 fee.
San Felipe Del Rio CISD Superintendent Dr. Carlos Rios explained that the fee covered the district’s use of those off-duty deputies, but did not explain in what manner. He went on to explain how the agreement between the county and the school district would work.
“If any officer is not available, then they would take care and ensure that somebody is there,” Rios said, referring to the county’s role in helping keep the district’s campuses safe and secure. “ Even if we would have had that same agreement with the city it would have been less than what we budgeted for, so it’s worth the $15,000 along with everything else they would be able to do.”
“The city was unable to do that, but they are committed to providing off-duty officers for five campuses. We just don’t have any guarantee that at the end of the day that if they are not able to fill it that we will. That’s something our chief of police and sergeant would have to come with a plan for should that happen,” Rios added.
When Overfelt asked if the sheriff’s deputies would be used strictly for security or if they would be used for traffic control, Rios said Chavira was the only one of the three schools mentioned in the agreement that had a need for traffic control, but only for a short time in the morning due to the lack of visibility for vehicles headed south on US Highway 277, where Chavira is located.
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