GREENSBORO, N.C. – After the Parkland school shooting, North Carolina lawmakers decided to offer $12 million in state grants to put more school resource officers in classrooms, but 2 Wants To Know (2WTK) has uncovered through public record requests that both Guilford County Schools and Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools did not apply for the grants to protect your children.
A Guilford County Schools spokesperson says the grants were not enough money to be feasible. The program capped the award for each school at $33,333. That came with a required 2 to 1 local match. Meaning for every $2 the state gave the local district would have to pay $1. With the local match, that’s up to $50,000 per school award. Guildford County says their SRO positions run more like $70,000 per year. So that’s still a lot of money the local district would have been forced to come up with.
Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools says the bigger issue for them was the timeline of the program. Districts could start applying for the grants on June 29. But the local budget had already been approved by County Commissioners on May 1.
“It did make it a little bit challenging as it relates to the timeliness of the grant,” said Assistant Superintendent of Operations Darrell Walker. “We really appreciate the opportunity the state’s provided, but for us it was really a timing issue.”
The state Department of Public Instruction also says the grant application process was on a tight timeline because of when state lawmakers passed the budget. And Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools says they are trying to increase the presence of armed officers in other ways. For example, they started offering a free lunch to law enforcement.
The Wake County Public School System and Charlotte-Mecklenburg County schools also did not apply for the grants. Here's the list of schools that applied which 2 Wants To Know obtained through a public records request:
2 Wants To Know contacted every Triad lawmaker on the North Carolina General assembly Education K-12 Committee. Only Rep. Cecil Brockman responded with a statement reading:
“It is good that these grants for school resource officers exist. However, I believe the best way to ensure the safety of our students is through the reduction of gun violence. This is why I have called for universal background checks, a ban on assault weapons, and gun violence restraining orders.”
2 Wants To Know will keep working to follow your money with these grants. If you’re interested in more investigations about schools safety, follow Ben Briscoe on Facebook: