Roanoke County School Board approves funds for six new student resource officers

ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. (WDBJ) - Near the end of Thursday night’s Roanoke County School Board meeting, the board approved appropriating $180,000 from the personnel budget to help bring in six new student resource officers to elementary schools in Roanoke County.

“Having armed, trained law enforcement-certified school resource officers in our schools is an indispensable component of school safety and security,” said Dr. Ken Nicely, superintendent of RCPS.

Dr. Nicely said the Roanoke County Sheriff’s Office has offered to fund equipment and hire and train four part-time SRO deputies to supplement existing SRO police officers and SRO sheriff deputies. He said RCSO would be reimbursed the cost of salaries and is willing to hire and train two additional SRO deputies as long as they are reimbursed for equipment costs and salaries for those two as well.

Dr. Nicely also said the Roanoke County School Board will request that the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors will assume responsibility of this funding as a public safety need.

“As a former SRO and as well as Sheriff Orange as an SRO, we understand the importance of having people in our buildings to keep our kid safe. It’s one of my number one priorities as a parent, that we’re providing a safe environment for everybody,” said Brent Hudson, vice-chairman of the Roanoke County School Board.

Dr. Nicely said this will advance RCPS’s eventual goal of having an SRO in every school in Roanoke County.

Copyright 2022 WDBJ. All rights reserved.