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Jacksonville City Council reinstates two school resource officers recently removed

The city council in Jacksonville voted to reinstate two of the three school resource officers removed last week.

The city council in Jacksonville voted to reinstate two of the three school resource officers removed last week.

The officers were transferred from their positions after acting police director and city attorney Robert Bamburg sent an email to the police department.

The Jacksonville North Pulaksi School Board sent a statement to city leadership regarding the district’s school resource officers. The email went out on Thursday, March 22 and the changes happened that Sunday.

Both parents and the school board were very concerned, especially in the current climate.

The school board said this would leave untrained officers in charge of safeguarding the district’s schools.

According to School Board President Daniel Gray, Mayor Gary Fletcher told him budgets were the cause of the shakeup.

The email sent to officers, on the other hand, said transfers were “in the best interest of the department and the community.”

On Thursday afternoon, the school board agreed to take on half of the cost of the district’s resource officers, paying $35,000 per each school resource officer.

Gray said after Parkland, they actually began the process to add school resource officers bringing the total from four to 8.

I have reached out to Mayor Fletcher to see if he will accept the deal, but have not heard back.

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