Keller ISD is maintaining a partnership with the city of Fort Worth to have school resource officers on campus.
The district’s board of trustees approved a $1.3 million renewal agreement with the city of Fort Worth to assign 12 school resource officers — 11 police officers and one mobile police officer — to serve at Keller ISD schools in Fort Worth. The vote was 6-0, with board Secretary Joni Shaw Smith absent from the Oct. 23 school board meeting.
The city of Fort Worth will cover the cost of the mobile police officer, who will rotate among the district’s elementary schools within Fort Worth city limits. The Fort Worth Crime Control and Prevention District will assist with funding the city’s portion of costs for funding the school resource officers, an expense split 50-50 with Keller ISD.
The agreement is effective until Sept. 30, 2024.
Keller ISD currently has 18 school resource officers — 12 from the Fort Worth Police Department, four from the Keller Police Department and one each from the Southlake Police Department and the Colleyville Police Department. The district has separate agreements with each city, according to the district’s spokesperson.
The Keller district counts on the Fort Worth Police Department to keep students safe, Trustee John Birt said.
“Given the number of campuses that we have in the city of Fort Worth and the partnership we have with Fort Worth PD, I think it’s a good testament to the partnership,” Birt said.
Keller ISD has 28 schools in Fort Worth.
Board Vice President Sandi Walker saw the school resource officers and campus security specialists engage with students when she visited the schools. One officer was sitting with the students in the cafeteria during lunch, Walker said.
“It was pretty impressive,” she said.
If the district requires additional officers for schools within Fort Worth’s city limits, Keller ISD will pay the city of Fort Worth an extra $154,514.29 annually per additional officer.
The agreement saw a $12,360.18 increase from the previous year for Keller ISD. The increase covers a portion of the cost for an additional detective to maintain investigations for five school districts and a private school — which all share the cost, said Michael Hoffman, the district’s safety director.
Where will the 12 school resource officers be?
- Central High School: 2
- Timber Creek High School: 2
- Fossil Ridge High School: 2
- Hillwood Middle School: 1
- Trinity Springs Middle School: 1
- Timberview Middle School: 1
- Fossil Hill Middle School: 1
- Vista Ridge Middle School: 1
- Mobile school resource officer: 1
Dang Le is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at dang.le@fortworthreport.org or via Twitter. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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