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Earlier this month, Lexington City Schools administered a survey to employees, parents and students of the LCS community to measure the success of the school resource officer program that began in October.
The Lexington Police Department acquired grant funding for the school resource officer program, which gave LCS the ability to use this year as a trial run for the district. At the School Board meeting last Tuesday, Chair Tim Diette commended those surveyed for their thoughtful responses, which will weigh heavily when determining the program’s continuation into the 2023-2024 school year.
A survey was administered to parents and employees in the beginning of the year when the possibility of a school resource officer for the city became a topic of discussion. At that time, school officials received variable responses with several concerns raised about an officer inside the school building carrying a loaded weapon, said LCS Director of Operations and Student Services Jason White While there were some similar concerns expressed in the spring’s survey results, the program was greatly commended for its success throughout the year.
White explained that there were three questions included in the survey, which asked the LCS community how much they value having a SRO at Lylburn Downing Middle School, if they support the continuation of the program, and what their general thoughts were for the Board. Responses were recorded on a scale of strongly value or support, value or support, no opinion, oppose or do not value, strongly do not value or strongly oppose.
With a total of 293 responses, 88.8 percent of those surveyed valued or strongly valued having a school resource officer at LDMS. Only 7.5 percent of students, parents and LCS employees did not value the SRO program and 3.8 percent had no opinion. Ninety percent of the total responses supported or strongly supported continuing the program into the 2023-2024 year, White said.
There was an overwhelming amount of support from the 145 student responses with 93.1 percent of students valuing or strongly valuing the SRO program, and 95.8 percent supporting or strongly supporting maintaining the program into the next year.
“Officer Haston … is already a huge part of the school community,” White said, as he agreed with the students. The students’ unedited open-ended survey responses are displayed throughout LDMS in their admiration of SRO Ricky Haston.
Thirty-nine employees filled out the survey. In the information provided to the School Board at last Tuesday’s meeting, instructional technology resource teacher Jennifer Hall had noted the number of employees who were also LCS parents, which could have influenced how involved the employees are within the district and how concerned they may be with the topic of the SRO.
Out of the 39 employee responses, 94.8 percent valued or strongly valued having a SRO at LDMS and 5.1 percent had no opinion. Also, 97.4 percent of employees hope the program will be continued into next year.
Parent responses to April’s survey were the most varied. As she did with the results from LCS employees, Hall identified the number of parents who were also employees of LCS and parents who had students attending both schools. Thirty-eight of those who responded had students at both schools.
In total, 124 parents filled out the survey, with 80.8 percent of all parents valuing or strongly valuing the SRO program, 3.2 percent giving no opinion, and 16 percent who did not value or strongly did not value the program. Eighty-one percent of parents hoped to have Haston rejoin the district next year. Another 3.2 percent of parents did not have an opinion, and 16 percent opposed moving forward with the program.
As stated at the Board’s March meeting, LCS has already applied for SRO grant funding for next year. Whether the School Board accepts this funding will be determined by the Board after considering the data collected by the survey, White explained.
White insists that the program has been a great asset to the LCS community this year. He told the Board, “I love what I’ve seen in Officer Haston this year [and] I think that Officer Haston has helped make this program successful.”
