Taylor Independent School District will add four contracted armed guards from Ranger Security Agency to comply with the new state law.
The district’s board of trustees unanimously approved adding the guards from the officers to comply with House Bill 3 during its Aug. 21 meeting. The law requires districts to have one armed officer at each campus starting Sept. 1.
While the state provides some funding to implement the newly ordered safety requirements, $15,000 per campus and some additional funds based on student enrollment, it’s not enough to cover the costs it takes the district to add the guards.
The estimated cost for the Ranger Security contracts is over $240,000.
“The reality is that it falls on the district now,” Interim Superintendent Steve Flores said during the meeting. “And guess what, parents are not very forgiving and they shouldn’t be when it comes to student and school safety.”
The district will have a guard stationed at Legacy Early College High, TH Johnson Elementary, Main Street Elementary and Naomi Pasemann Elementary. Taylor Middle School and Taylor High School are already in compliance with the law since they each have a school resource officer.
Since the district will not fully be in compliance with the law right away, they will file a good cause exemption.
In the district’s proposal to the trustees, they will use this current school year as time to form a long-term plan for school security. One potential option is to eventually hire four additional school resource officers to replace the contracted guards from Ranger Security.
The school resource officers come from the Taylor Police Department. Clarissa Rodriguez, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, said the police asked for one year to work on providing the four officers.
Another option for the district’s future security could be establishing an in-house Taylor ISD Police Department. Rodriguez stated a Taylor ISD PD as a potential long-term goal during her presentation.
This district says it will explore the option of an in-house police department during this school year, establishing a total cost and what a timeline would be.
“This year would give us time to tap into our current administrators and individuals on campus who do have a background in law enforcement or the guardian program,” Rodriguez said.
In the meantime, the Ranger Security contracted guards will not have the same roles as the security resource officers. The armed guards are there for protection and cannot engage in other police activities, such as searching students.
Ranger Security was chosen over other contract security companies, such as Blue Knight Security.
