Brevard County public schools aren’t the only ones grappling with how to pay for increased security: Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy recently launched a campaign to raise $75,000 to help fund a full-time school resource officer at the upper school, a second private security guard at the lower school, and several physical upgrades including additional security cameras and gates.
“From charter to public to private, everyone’s in the same boat,” said Colleen Middlebrooks, the school’s director of advancement. “Every year we have to upgrade or fortify based on the climate.”
Last week, Holy Trinity signed a contract with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office for a full-time school resource officer at the upper campus on Pineda Causeway, becoming the first private school in the county to do so.
“This is the absolutely right program to protect this campus and we are proud to be in partnership with Holy Trinity,” Sheriff Wayne Ivey said at the contract signing.
A Sheriff’s Office spokesman said Friday that he was not aware of any other private schools currently in discussion to receive school resource officers.
The Catholic Schools of Brevard County, meanwhile, also recently made a move to focus on security by contracting with a private firm to annually review the schools’ security plans and training drills.
Holy Trinity administrators declined to comment on how much they are paying for the SRO, and that information was not immediately available from the Sheriff’s Office. The full-time resource officer will replace off-duty officers who work in four-hour shifts.
School Principal Katherine Cobb said the change does more than provide enhanced day-to-day security.
“What this new agreement gives us is a dedicated resource officer that will really be assimilated here within our culture,” Cobb said, adding that the officer would hopefully be able to identify any potential security threats before they happen.
A second private security guard was recently hired for the lower school, which serves grades pre-kindergarten through sixth, on Strawbridge Avenue in Melbourne. This means the school will now have security on-site during all hours that children are on campus, Cobb said, including during before- and after-school care. Both security guards have extensive military and law enforcement backgrounds, and Cobb said they would work in partnership with the SRO at the upper school. They will also carry weapons.
“It is the intent of school leadership that all security personnel will be armed and will hold the appropriate certifications and licensures,” Cobb said in a recent letter to parents and supporters.
The fundraising campaign, dubbed “For Our Safety,” kicked off in March and has raised almost half its goal. A similar campaign in 2010 raised $60,000 to help pay for a stoplight at the school entrance on Pineda.
Both campuses do active shooter drills, Middlebrooks said, and another is planned before the end of the school year.
While the plan to hire a full-time SRO was in the works before the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Middlebrooks said parents have recently become more concerned about security as they compare their school options.
“When parents are coming in, some of the first questions they are asking are not just about curriculum,” she said. “It’s about safety and security.”
