Lake County schools asking taxpayers to pay for school resource officers

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. (FOX 35 WOFL) - It's back to school time here in Central Florida. Three counties head back to class on Friday, with the rest of the counties following on Monday. District officials across the regional are working to make sure all schools are safe, but that costs money.

The school board in Lake County is asking voters for help financially. When the state passed the law that said that every school had to have a school resource officer or a school guardian, they sent Lake County $1.8 million to pay for it. But, the school board says that it will cost $7 million to pay for all the officers.

Lake County school board members say that they found a way to do it this school year, but they do not know how long the money will last. Before the school shooting in Parkland, Lake County had school resource officers at middle and high schools. In order to comply with Florida's new school safety law, they had to ask local cities to chip in to get officers in the elementary schools this year. 

Officials say they are not sure if the cities can afford this long-term. That's an extremely high burden to place on our local cities, who often have shoestring budgets. That's a burden that just can not be sustained by them. They are asking taxpayers to chip in too. 

The school district is asking voters for a property tax increase to raise $16 million per year. Board Member Mark Dawd said it would pay for an officer at every school, mental health professionals, and more. He says "if we could take care of the mental health component, perhaps school safety would take care of itself. We need to address the root of the problem." 

August 28 will be the voting date. The district is asking for a $0.75 millage. So, a $125,000 would pay another $75 in property taxes if this vote goes ahead.