- April 19, 2024
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The Volusia County School Board unanimously approved an interlocal agreement on Tuesday, Oct. 11, between the district and the Volusia Sheriff's Office for the position of a school safety specialist, who would also be an employee of the sheriff.
This will replace the director of security and safety position previously held by Michelle Newman, who resigned last month. The agreement allows VSO to have command oversight and management of school safety and security, while providing the school district access to the sheriff's resources, according to the School Board agenda item. The district also stated this would streamline communications with VSO and other local law enforcement agencies.
The position will have a salary of $90,000. The sheriff will also assign a lieutenant to assist the new director.
School Board Chair Ruben Colon thanked Chitwood and his team for their efforts in drafting the agreement.
"What came before us today is the result of hard work, of understanding the differences between the work that we do and the work that you do," Colon said. "And seeing this come into fruition is actually something I've actually wanted to see for a while because I wanted to see us get out of the law enforcement business and stick to the education business, and allow folks who are in the law enforcement business to be a part of the law enforcement business."
He said that it might have sounded like he was speaking in a circle, but due to state mandates requiring more collaboration between the district, municipalities and law enforcement agencies, the school district started to notice that they "weren't speaking the same language."
Volusia Sheriff Chitwood said that the district would be following Seminole County's model with this interlocal agreement, with some differences, such as the guardian program, which will continue to operate as it has been in Volusia County Schools. Chitwood added that having a VSO captain embedded in the superintendent's cabinet will help bring resources faster.
Not everyone is cut out to be a school resource officer or a school guardian, Chitwood said.
"We fully understand that this position is the same exact way," he said.
Per the agreement, the new safety and security director will be responsible for identifying long-range security needs; maintaining and amending an emergency preparedness plan; developing and overseeing the implementation of emergency preparedness training and emergency education awareness materials for use within schools; and collaborating all communications between the sheriff's office command during any critical school-related incident, to name a few.
The board agreed that, once hired, the new director would start as soon as possible.
