Agreement reached over school resource officers, crossing guards in Cumberland County

The Fayetteville city council has decided how it will move forward with the Cumberland County school board to fill positions for resource and traffic control officers at public schools in the city limits.

The special meeting came as the city raced against the clock to fill these jobs in time for the new school year.

The city council decided to split its agreement with the county school board over school resource officers and traffic control officers. Council has opted to sign the agreement on the terms for SROs with Police Chief Kem Braden's recommendations.

"The support that I put behind this program is based on the fact that I would rather be proactive in doing something in the schools to whenever a critical incident occurs," Braden said.

Per this agreement, CCS would pay back the city for the costs of 25 school resource officers' salaries and benefits annually and pay an extra $3,000 for each officer in the first year to handle one-time costs. But then the council decided it would authorize its city manager to create a separate agreement to staff traffic control officers for this first year and then officials will revisit that agreement for traffic control at a later time.

During the deliberations, several city council members expressed concern about costs that would arise for SROs and traffic control officers that would not be explicitly covered or reimbursed by the county through this agreement. There's also concern about how the police department would staff these positions, considering its long-standing staffing shortages.

The Town of Hope Mills also announced Thursday that it approved a contract with the Cumberland County school board about how to staff SROs and traffic control officers for the upcoming school year.