SRO Funds Shifted To Mental Health Positions In Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The decision to use funds previously allocated to school resource officers for mental health resources serving students was finalized Tuesday by Alexandria City Council. The vote was 5-1, with Councilmember Amy Jackson voting against it.

The $789,909 for school resource officers had been moved to contingent reserves with City Council's approval of the fiscal year 2022 budget. City staff were directed to bring a proposal for mental health resources for school-age children, the Teen Wellness Center, an additional Behavioral Health Specialist for the Alexandria Crisis Intervention and Co-responding Program pilot program, or other ideas.

The new allocation shifts the funding to the following departments: $100,000 to the Court Service Unit, $569,909 to the Department of Community and Human Services and $122,000 to the Alexandria Health Department. More specifically, the allocation includes an Alexandria mentoring partnership coordinator for $101,000, public health nurse at the high school's Minnie Howard Campus for $122,000, therapist supervisor at the Department of Community and Human Services' Child and Family Behavioral Health Services for $122,422, human services specialist for $98,654, and licensed senior therapists for $111,435.

According to a staff presentation to City Council, the positions address long-standing needs, increasing supports and interventions for students. The Alexandria mentoring partnership coordinator will be tasked with ensuring students have adult role models, while the public health nurse will be assigned to the Minnie Howard Campus. The therapist supervisor will be located at Alexandria City High School and rotate to the Minnie Howard Campus and middle schools. One senior therapist will be located at the high school, and another will be bilingual and split between the high school and Hammond Middle School. Another senior therapist will be scheduled to respond to schools as needed based on referrals. Lastly, the human services specialist will be based at the high school, provide family outreach and engagement support, focus on prevention and early intervention, and build on restorative justice and equity efforts.

Various community members spoke at the City Council public hearing, both for and against shifting the school resource officer funds to mental health positions. The hearing also showed an area of disagreement between City Council and the Alexandria School Board. School Board member Cindy Anderson testified on behalf of the school board, reading an email sent to City Council members from School Board Chair Meagan Alderton calling for the pause of removing school resource officers. The email opined that the addition of mental health positions "is rushed without appropriate processes" and assumes ACPS can meet its security needs without the school resource officers.

Anderson's testimony argued that school resource officers are familiar with the schools and are key to helping administrators develop and carry out school crisis, emergency management and response plans.

"Police officers are police officers because they have specific and specialized training," Anderson testified. "Before we remove that level of expertise from our school buildings, we should have a full well-thought-out comprehensive plan for how we will replace those specialized skills."

Councilmember Canek Aguirre responded that the positions are the city's to decide on and supplement existing services. He also expressed frustration about the lack of data for the school resource officer program in its over 20 years of existence and said four councilmembers sent letters to the school board during the memorandum of understanding renewal process. The school board had voted last year to renew the MOU with the Alexandria Police Department for the school resource officer program.

"Personally I feel that all of our police officers should go through the SRO training so they know how to death with youth. Why not? They should," Aguirre said. "And the other thing, I know the school board has at least $1 million allocated for security. So by losing one police officer or two police officers, the school shouldn't go into chaos. I understand that they have specific skills, then why are we spending $1 million on security guards?"

Mayor Justin Wilson said he disagreed with the original decision to move the school resource officer funds to contingent reserves but supports the mental health positions.

"This was a disagreement on the substance, and no amount of process was going to fix that disagreement," said Wilson. "You had a majority of the school board that disagreed with the majority of the city council."

The Alexandria Police Department's school resource unit dates back to 1997. Officers assigned to schools finished their assignments at the conclusion of the school year.