Wake School Board approves preliminary budget, school resource officer guidelines
CARY, N.C. (WTVD) -- The Wake County School Board unanimously passed new guidelines for school resource officers Tuesday called the Memorandum for Understanding, or MOU.
"This is make sure our principals and SROs work together and figure out what works at schools and what doesn't," said school board member Jim Martin.
But some outspoken former students aren't happy.
'It is also not an MOU that was created through the process of the board receiving community input," said recent high school graduate Q. Wideman.
But board members say it was. The changes stem from a federal investigation into how officers were dealing with disciplinary issues among minority students. Now, there will be more accountability, diversity training and officers will have to include race among the details reported when referring a student to the criminal justice system.
Click here to see the school resource officer policy.
Another item checked off the agenda was passing the interim budget.
"We can continue business, continue operating at a status quo manor but not make any changes," said David Neter, the Chief Business Officer for Wake County Public Schools."
The school board asked the county for more money to increase teacher and employee pay. The county returned a portion, leaving the district with a funding gap of $29.1 million. The increase in pay comes at a price; affecting other things that need local funding that there is no local funding for.
A clearer picture of how the money will fall will emerge when lawmakers decide on a final state budget.
