By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Members of the local public school district’s board of trustees on Thursday were presented with some of the costs for enhancing security in Del Rio public schools.
The San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District Board of Trustees and School Superintendent Dr. Carlos Rios discussed the measures during a special called budget workshop held at the student performance center and administration auditorium. The meeting was opened by board vice president Diana E. Gonzales, as board president Raymond P. Meza was absent.
Rios began the meeting by discussing how his staff would present the budget items to be considered by the board. He said staff members would also present items not yet included in the budget.
Rios also acknowledged the presence in the audience of County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. and Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez.
“The cooperation that has surfaced, beyond how we were already cooperating, in light of the tragedy that happened has been significant, cooperating between the police of the city of Del Rio and the sheriff. We appreciate it. As part of the discussion today we are going to talk about adding police officers, and because it’s a workshop, you all can ask questions about anything you like,” Rios told the board.
Members of Rios’ staff then began reviewing specific items presented to the board as part of the new budget.
The biggest-ticket item not included as part of the regular budget is a proposed $4.5 million loop road to connect Wildcat Drive and North Main Street, Rios said.
At the board’s first chance to ask questions, board member Joshua Overfelt said he would like to see a cost estimate for “mag-locking all the doors in the district.”
“I was in Big Lake for a tournament my daughter attended back in the spring, and there at Big Lake High School, all the doors are mag-locked, where you have to swipe in order to get in as an extra security feature. Security is going to be a big point for me this budget cycle, in light of what has happened,” Overfelt said.
Rios replied a request for additional school district police officers is included in the budget requests being presented to the board.
“The chief of police for the school district is putting together a whole security improvement plan that we will present in the next couple of weeks, but those are one-time expenditures that we are going to ask the board to commit fund balance to, excess fund balance, and that’s going to include things like having the card-swipe at every door so teachers don’t have to use keys and don’t have to worry about leaving the doors open, because it will include magnet doors so when the door is closed, there’s a system to notify the police on that campus. It’s going to include other equipment for our police officers that they don’t have now that they think would be valuable, but our chief has already reached out to vendors to get all those prices, but again, those are one-time expenses,” the superintendent added.
Rios warned the board those expenditures are likely “to be quite extensive,” but said the district would endeavor to “do as much as we can.”
Board member Jesus E. Galindo, who is employed as a Del Rio police officer, said his thoughts were in the same vein as Overfelt’s and asked if the board would be able to “look at a timeline” for implementing the proposed security measures.
“Are we looking at them (to be put in place) before the first day of school to have those things ready and in place for our school district?” Galindo asked.
“We’re going to try and implement as much as we can. It depends on the availability of the equipment from the vendors, but what will happen, just to remind everyone, the board approves the budget about a week before the end of June, and then the very next meeting after the budget is approved is what we call a commitment meeting, and at that meeting we ask you to recommit funds to projects that weren’t completed this year and for additional projects,” Rios said.
Rios next gave a presentation about projected revenues and discussed with the board the nuts and bolts of different tax rate proposals. He also spoke about the local optional homestead exemption the school district offers taxpayers and how the different tax proposals would affect homes of different value.
Board members also got a look at an “interactive workbook” that allows an examination of various budget options like several levels of proposed pay increases for school district personnel in the coming year. The workbook allows board members to make decisions about those budget requests on a line item basis.
Among the line item increases proposed are the addition of a police lieutenant and eight additional police officers. The police lieutenant slot is estimated to cost the district an additional $68,813, and the eight new police officer slots are estimated to cost an additional $550,507.84, finance department staff members noted.
Later during the discussion, board secretary Linda Guanajuato-Webb, whose husband is a city council member and a retired police officer, said, “I appreciate that we have officers on the list, but we also have to look at points of entry, keyless tags, using your ID tags to come into the buildings, to come into the parking lot, where nobody has access to any of that.”
“As I responded to Mr. Overfelt earlier, ma’am, all that will come in the recommendations during the last budget meeting in June. Right now, the chief is busy working with different people to collect all that data and put a price tag to it, so we can bring it all together,” Rios replied.
Galindo noted the district needs to include the cost of additional training that may be needed by school district police officers, such as specialized training on any new equipment they might receive.
—
Contact the author at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
