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DCPS still not done hiring school safety assistants; JSO officers stepping in

130 JSO officers are currently working overtime to make sure there is at least one school safety official on every campus.

One-hundred-thirty JSO officers are currently working overtime to make sure there is at least one school safety official on every campus.

Meanwhile, Duval County Public Schools hasn't finished hiring for their school safety assistant program.

The schools are behind on hiring 105 school safety assistants, or SSA's.

"They have to go through a rigorous background check, a psychological exam, a background check and a polygraph test as well as a normal interview before they even go into the training itself," said Director of Communications for the schools, Tracy Pierce.

With over 400 applications, more than 100 have already been disqualified for various reasons.

"We want to make sure they are 100% vetted, that they're capable, competent, they have what it takes to do this job effectively," Pierce said.

The state funded about $3.6 million to Duval County Public Schools for the SSA program. The school board needs roughly $4.2 million to comply with state law.

"There's a gap of $600-700,000 there that we have to cover," Pierce said, excluding what the help of JSO officers will cost.

JSO told First Coast News the school board has had 14 SSA's covering elementary schools since the first day. The rest have been covered by JSO officers.

So far, only one class of SSA's has been assigned to elementary schools. The next class to start won't be done training until September 4th. That's a little less than half the hires they need.

"Since school started, I've been to several schools and I've seen the presence at all schools. I've also seen schools do a great job with their door locking and all of those facility precautions, so from our perspective the school year's off to a great start," said Pierce.

As of now, we don't know who's paying for the officers' overtime. Pierce told First Coast News they're still in talks about that.

They also will not tell us which schools are covered by SSA's and which are covered by officers for security reasons.

No word yet on when all the SSA's are in the schools.

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