Jacksonville, FL — It's a major step forward in getting school resource officers in place at every school in the Clay County school district.
Tuesday evening, the Clay County Board of County Commissioners approved two different funding lines, which will provide almost half of the money requested by Clay Sheriff Darryl Daniels.
Commissioners have now approved $1.8 million in capital funding, which includes covering expenses like patrol cars and equipment. They've also approved $300,000 in operational funding. That part will likely come from funds and forfeitures from the sheriff's office.
Sheriff Daniels had been requesting $4.5 million to make this idea a reality, so following the commissioners' actions on Tuesday, he now has almost half of that amount.
That's as the Clay County Superintendent, Addison Davis, has previously said about $1.55 million will be coming from the state toward this school resource officer program.
Commissioners are now calling on Clay County Schools to fulfill the rest of the request, coming it at around $575,000. All of the funding approved by the commission is contingent on the school board approving the remaining balance.
While the school board is expected to take up the issue during their meeting next week, Sheriff Daniels says Tuesday was the drop date in order to get the school resource officers trained and in every school by the start of the upcoming school year. He says every day that there's a delay, there will be a delay in getting the officers into schools.
Sheriff Daniels says he will start acting immediately once the funding is in place.