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HARLINGEN — After a year-long standoff, city officials and school leaders are working on resuming an agreement aimed at providing the district with police protection after parents called for heightened security on campuses.
For nearly 20 years, city and school officials had been signing off on the annual security agreement.
But last year, negotiations stalled following months of talks as residents called on the district to ramp up security in the wake of the May 24, 2022, shootings in which a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in a Uvalde grade school.
Meanwhile, district officials entered into agreements with Cameron County to provide officers to help protect campuses.
In a meeting Aug. 16, commissioners were set to meet with City Attorney Mark Sossi to discuss their plan before determining whether to present district officials with a proposal.
“We’re still working on that,” Mayor Norma Sepulveda said before the meeting.
City makes proposal
At City Hall, City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez said officials are proposing assigning five police officers, including a sergeant, to help provide district security while working at an increased rate.
Meanwhile, district officials had requested the city assign six officers, he said.
“That’s all we can transfer right now,” Gonzalez said, referring to the proposal to assign five officers, noting police officials, with 138 officers in the department, are concerned about pulling more off street patrols.
This year, officials are proposing the district pay a higher rate for each officer assigned to campuses, Gonzalez said.
“We were losing money on the previous rates,” he said, declining to disclose the proposed rate. “That’s why we had to adjust it. We’re not supposed to lose money.”
Expanding partnership
This year, district officials are trying to expand their partnership with the city as they work toward a new security agreement, interim Superintendent Veronica Kortan said.
“We have a long-standing partnership with the city,” she said in an interview, referring the annual security agreement. “We’re wanting to expand that even more.”
For years, the district has partnered with the city in developing opportunities for students, Kortan said.
“We’re wanting to expand our partnership — the city has been a wonderful partner,” she said. “It’s about making sure we expand opportunities we have for students and making sure we incorporate the city in some of that work. Safety is one of those.”
Officials take sticky point off table
After months of negotiations, last year’s talks stalled after officials proposed the district pay an administrative fee.
“In previous MOUs, there were no administrative fees. That was something we were adding,” Sepulveda said, referring to the parties’ memorandum of understanding. “We sent it to the district. Unfortunately, it didn’t get signed.”
This year, officials pulled the proposed administrative fee off the table, Gonzalez said.
Months of talks hit snag
Last year, Police Chief Michael Kester called on district leaders to “take steps” to start a police department, adding city officials would help.
During contract negotiations, district officials rejected the proposal.
“We did several negotiations,” Sepulveda recalled.
In previous years, the police department had been assigning four full-time officers and five off-duty officers to help the district provide security.
During last year’s negotiations, city officials rejected school leaders’ request to assign the five off-duty officers to work full-time, Sepulveda said at the time, adding the police department couldn’t take more officers off city patrols.
City officials also rejected the district’s request to allow the police department’s officers to work off-duty in exchange for over-time pay, Brianna Vela Garcia, a district spokeswoman, said at the time.
In response, Assistant City Manager Josh Ramirez said officials were concerned the department’s officers would become over-burdened working off-duty hours.
District works to heighten security
Amid last year’s negotiations, district officials entered into agreements with Cameron County and the cities of Primera and Combes to provide officers to work security, with the agencies assigning 12 to 17 off-duty sheriff’s deputies, deputy constables and police officers a day to work school security, Vela Garcia said at the time.
As part of those agreements, the district could request off-duty officers and deputies “on an as-needed basis,” said Danny Castillo, a former Harlingen police chief and city commissioner serving as the district’s director of emergency management and school safety.
Last year, the district also hired more security personnel, boosting their numbers to 42, Vela Garcia said.
At district offices, officials also began operating a “surveillance room,” monitoring hundreds of surveillance cameras across 31 campuses, she said.
