By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

The Chilton County Board of Education unanimously approved a motion “to partner with local municipalities and the Sheriff’s Office to place certified police officers randomly in our schools” during a special called meeting on Feb. 23.

The motion stated the agreement would remain in place for the remainder of the school year.

Chilton County Schools Superintendent Tommy Glasscock said every school would be covered under this plan.

Existing funding in the amount of $100,000 will come from the school systems reserve, which is higher than the state requirement. Glasscock said the state requires school systems to have one month’s operating budget in reserve, and the Chilton County Schools had saved two months’ operating budget in reserve.

“I appreciate the municipalities, the Sheriff’s Department and Mr. Glasscock all working together to make this top priority,” Board President Lori Patterson said. “We hope to have a really great plan, a better plan in place for next year.”

Board member Pam Price thanked Glasscock for finding the funds to implement the plan.

Previously, only Clanton schools had officers in them. These positions were funded by the city of Clanton and are School Resource Officers.

The possibility of funding SROs for all of the schools in the system had been discussed at a BOE work session in August and in some meetings since then.

A meeting with Glasscock and the police departments will take place next week to outline policy and procedures of the partnership.

“The municipalities and the Sheriff will kind of be the coordinator for this,” Glasscock said.