Jeremy Bell, Wood County Schools’ safety and security coordinator, talked to the Wood County Board of Education Tuesday night about the increase in cost the district will have to pay for school resource officers this year. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

PARKERSBURG — Jeremy Bell, Wood County Schools’ safety and security coordinator, told the Wood County Board of Education Tuesday night that the district will now have to pay $50,000 for each school resource officer the district has in schools, for a total of $350,000.

“School resource officers, they are the first line of defense when it comes to any emergency that happens in the school,” Bell said. “It’s not a raise. It’s just we’re paying more to the people that hire them.”

Bell said the $50,000 payment is a contractual amount paid to the respective municipalities for each officer assigned to the schools, covering the period they are working in the schools rather than on regular police duty. The actual salaries of the officers are higher and vary based on experience and department.

“They get that lump sum at the end of the year, the $50,000, to the city or to the Sheriff’s Department. And that (covers) the nine months out of the year that we’re taking them from the streets.”

When asked what the duties of an SRO are, Bell said they are responsible for school safety, emergency response, building security checks, student support, and maintaining a visible presence during the school day and at events.

Kaleb Lawrence, assistant superintendent of operations, told the Wood County Board of Education that the bids for the new Lincoln Elementary, set to be built on the site of the former Lincoln Elementary building, came in higher than what was expected. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

“I would say they don’t work for us. They work for the police departments,” Bell said. “They do have things that they do every day, like go check doors.”

Bell also shared his own experience as a former SRO at Parkersburg High School.

“Whenever I was the SRO, these kids would come to me before they would come to other people, because they have concerns at home,” Bell said. “They have concerns that, hey, this is what’s going on in my house. What do I do? My mom, dad are fighting. What do I do? So there’s, there’s a lot of things that they do behind the scenes that we don’t even know about, that they’re communicating with these kids… but they’re the first line of defense, and their main thing is stopping threats.”

Bell said by having SROs from the local police departments in schools, rather than the district having its own security detail, it makes sure students are protected by highly trained individuals with “situational awareness.”

“We’re going to have trained police officers in most of our middle schools and high schools,” Bell said. “And then what will happen in the future? Hopefully we’ll have rotating guys in our elementary schools.”

Wood County Schools Transportation Director Chad Bloss talked to the Wood County Board of Education Tuesday night about a persistent shortage of bus drivers that has forced mechanics off their primary duties and onto bus routes. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

Kaleb Lawrence, assistant superintendent of operations, told the board that the bids for the new Lincoln Elementary, set to be built on the site of the former Lincoln Elementary building, came in over what was expected.

“They did come back almost $5 million over,” Lawrence said. “(We are) actively negotiating with Grae-con. They were the apparent low bidder. Code says we can actually negotiate as long as the scope or cost does not change more than 10% of that original bid.”

Lawrence also said the district is over budget on other bond projects, specifically the Erickson All-Sports Facility.

“We have cut out $720,000 for the stuff from baseball, softball. They will have a nice, usable field. It is not the turnkey one we all hoped it would be,” Lawrence said.

Board President Justin Raber said when the bonds came together in 2022 there wasn’t the rate of inflation that is being seen today and that price increases were out of the district’s control.

“Here we are in 2025, three years later… costs have gone up, and that’s the issue where we’re at today,” Raber said. “What’s within our control is, you know, value engineering, and instead of having the Cadillac version, we’re getting the Chevrolet version.”

Despite the challenges, Lawrence said the district has completed all seven of its secure entrance projects and Superintendent Christie Willis said the district remains committed to delivering on promises to the community.

“Like the middle school sized gyms in the elementary because the things that we have promised like that to the community, we’ve kept those in the plan,” Willis said.

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Fees for Wood County Schools’ SROs this year are:

* Parkersburg Police Department: $50,000 per SRO (a significant increase from previous years), with four being placed in schools

* Wood County Sheriff’s Office: $50,000, with one officer

* Williamstown Police Department: $50,000 with one officer

* Vienna Police Department: $50,000 with one office

* A total of $350,000 for seven SROs