CALDWELL, Idaho — The Caldwell School Board voted to hire private security to help keep students and staff safe this school year during its meeting on Monday.
The board members made the decision a couple of months after they opted to eliminate student resources officers due to budget cuts.
Private security is cheaper than continuing to contract with the Caldwell Police Department, which cost the district roughly $300,000 last school year. Administrators said contracting with Eagle Eye Security will save them tens of thousands of dollars.
School starts Wednesday, but the security officers will likely start working in early September. The company still needs to hire them.
Last year, the police department had four SROs (student resource officers) working throughout the district. This year, the board approved three armed and uniformed private security officers — who will work at most of the secondary schools.
It is unclear which ones.
The board decided after a long discussion about how many they could afford. Unlike the SROs, which came and went, the district said the security officers will be at the schools full-time.
They will use federal money to pay for two of them; Superintendent N. Shalene French said they will have to pull from the general fund for the other.
She said the police department will sometimes still have to come to schools since private security is not law enforcement.
This decision is the aftermath of the district not getting enough votes in the May election to renew a $4.1 million levy, which is how they historically paid for SROs.
French said the district is trying to get a grant from the state to add one SRO on top of the security officers. They will also add another security officer if they find more money later.
The district plans on bringing another levy to the voters this school year, likely in November.