HARLINGEN — Nearly a week before classes open, city and school officials continue to negotiate a proposed security agreement calling on the district to start a police department amid residents’ concerns in the wake of the Uvalde massacre.
Meanwhile, school officials are proposing the city boost the number of officers it assigns to the district from four to nine.
A week after city commissioners proposed the agreement, district officials worked with their attorneys to revise the plan before presenting their version to City Hall on Thursday.
On Friday, city and school officials declined to release the proposed agreement.
“We’ve had a series of discussions with the school district and they continue,” City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez said Friday.
Proposals under negotiation
As part of their proposal, school officials want city leaders to boost the number of police officers assigned to the district from four to nine, Mayor Norma Sepulveda said.
“The district wants more officers this year,” she said. “That would mean taking officers off the street.”
For years, city officials have assigned four officers to the district, which pays their salaries as part of the agreement.
Meanwhile, five additional officers rotate shifts to work school security.
Now, district officials want the city to boost the number of full-time officers assigned to the district to nine, Sepulveda said.
“There’s no way I could do that without impacting the community,” she said.
Currently, 139 officers are working for the police department, Sgt. Larry Moore, the department’s spokesman, said.
As part of their proposal, city officials would help the district take steps to start its police department, Sepulveda said, noting many school districts operate police departments.
“We are trying to come to an agreement,” she said, adding, “hopefully come up with one soon — the school year’s approaching. I want the children to be safe, secure. I want to do whatever is possible. It’s absolutely in their hands.”
District bolstering security
For the new school year opening Aug. 15, the district’s bolstering its security, spokeswoman Brianna Vela Garcia said.
Along with the city’s four police officers, the school district assigns 50 security officers to work under Danny Castillo, a former Harlingen police chief and city commissioner who serves as the district’s director of emergency management and school safety, overseeing its security program, she said.
During the upcoming year, the district will be operating a “surveillance room” in which officials will be monitoring hundreds of surveillance cameras across 31 campuses, she said.
Background
Since the May 24 Uvalde school massacre, residents here have been calling for heightened security at the school district with nearly 18,000 students, raising concerns during the city’s June town hall meeting and at a district community meeting last month.
