A city school district in Alabama will hire 15 campus security officers to work before and after school every day.
Huntsville City Schools will spend around $280,500 for additional officers to improve school security as part of a transfer student supervision plan, according to al.com.
Currently the district doesn’t have enough campus security officers to monitor every campus, a problem exacerbated by the student traffic that happens before and after school days as part of a transfer program. The school board will approve the new expenditures through its annual budget process.
The magnet school and Majority-to Minority city transfer programs have students arriving at their zone’s school around 7 a.m. and staying on campus until 4 p.m. to wait for buses. Unarmed officers will work weekdays from 6:45 to 8:45 a.m. and 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. to prevent unauthorized youths from loitering before and after school. The officers will have two-way radios and remote access to student IDs to verify student identities.
The wages, with new officers set to earn $15 an hour, will cost an additional $236,340. Motorola 1500 XTS radios will cost $18,000 and uniforms will be $5,040.