Cumberland County Schools will soon see change when it comes to the frontline of safety.
Monday marks the day Sheriff Ennis Wright said he would no longer provide school resource officers and traffic control officers in Fayetteville, Hope Mills, Spring Lake and unincorporated parts of the county.
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Kevin Coleman, the associate superintendent of auxiliary services for the county school system, said the issue is about bodies and safety outside of schools.
“It’s not a money thing. This is not a financial thing,” Coleman said. “This is a staffing issue, and so, finding enough staff to the schools, along with covering [the] street and all the other things that they need to cover.”
Wright agreed to provide SROs and traffic control officers for summer school, which goes from June 10 to Aug. 9.
There are a total of 84 SROs in Cumberland County Schools:
- Wright said he will keep SROs in 24 schools.
- The Fayetteville Police Department has 50 schools it needs to cover.
- There are three SROs at schools in Spring Lake.
- There are seven SROs at schools in Hope Mills.
Hope Mills Police Chief Stephen Dollinger said it's a challenge, but the town council has provided the resources to staff officers at schools in Hope Mills.
"As soon as the town decided that they wanted to get it done, my team and I went right to work and we're almost there,” Dollinger said. “I expect fully that we'll have everything staffed for the first day of school."
The past month has been a scramble for area leaders and Cumberland County law enforcement agencies to come up with a plan for the fall semester.
The first day of the 2024-25 academic year in Cumberland County Schools is Aug. 26.