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Plan splits school patrols
Four would be shifted from sheriff to police
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Published: May 3, 2009
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools officials are working through a proposal to split the policing of most of the county's schools between the Winston-Salem Police Department and the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office.
The arrangement would give four schools to the police department to patrol as part of a pilot program and keep 22 schools with the sheriff's office, said Superintendent Don Martin. Kernersville's police department would continue to police middle and high schools within town limits.
Martin said that the arrangement would let the school system try out a partnership with the police department without making a major change to its school-resource officer program, which has been with the sheriff's office for more than 30 years.
"I think it'll be good," he said.
Most of the details in Martin's plan still need to be worked out, including the cost of each department's contract and which schools would be patrolled by the police department. He said that the police department would get two pairs of one middle school and one high school. The pairs would be chosen so that most of the middle school's students feed into the partner high school.
He said that Wiley Middle and Reynolds High School were "very likely" candidates to go to the police department. The two schools are next to each other in the West Highlands neighborhood. Other possible schools include: Northwest Middle School and North Forsyth High School, Paisley Middle School and Parkland High School, Jefferson Middle School and Mount Tabor High School or Mineral Springs Middle School and Carver High School.
The plan also needs the approval of the school board, Winston-Salem's City Council and the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners.
Martin announced in February that the school system would cancel its $2 million arrangement with the sheriff's office and ask for bids because of long-running disagreements with Sheriff Bill Schatzman over what duties the school officers should perform. Because of those disputes, the school system and sheriff's office have gone two years without signing a new contract.
Three private security companies, the police department and sheriff's office all submitted bids at the end of March. School officials said that their preference was to have a law-enforcement agency.
The police department's bid isn't easily comparable to the sheriff's bid because the agencies bid on different numbers of schools -- police bid for the 21 schools within city limits, as well as Reagan High School, which is within police jurisdiction because it's less than a mile outside of the city.
The police bid included one option for 27 officers at a cost of $1.75 million and a second option for 34 officers at a cost of $2.3 million. The department applied for federal grants to cover some of its bid, but those grants might not be announced until September and would be a long shot, said City Manager Lee Garrity.
Schatzman's office gave one option for 33 officers for $2.1 million and 38 officers for $2.5 million. Both would cover all 26 schools.
One challenge for the police bid would have been finding the officers to run the program. Chief Scott Cunningham said that his plan would have included hiring deputies currently serving as school-resource officers.
The sheriff's office had left some positions vacant in recent months so that it could reassign deputies and fewer would lose their jobs if it lost the bid, said Maj. Brad Stanley.
In the hybrid proposal, there's no longer a possibility of cutting deputies, Stanley said.
He said it's possible that a few current school officers may be reassigned, but that depends on the school system's plan.
Martin, Garrity and County Manager Dudley Watts met last week and talked about sharing schools between the two departments. The new contracts would start July 1.
"A hybrid is probably a more realistic approach with this kind of quick turnaround," Garrity said. "The idea of the whole pilot is it's a chance for the city to try it, for the school system to try some police officers and also a chance for a good comparison for schools with police officers versus deputies."
■ Dan Galindo can be reached at 727-7377 or at dgalindo@wsjournal.com.
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