POINCIANA, Fla. — Some schools are struggling to pay for the on-campus officers required by new state law, and administrators at one Osceola charter are upset they have to pay more money than public schools -- for the same service.

  • Charter school says they pay more for SROs than public schools
  • Osceola charters have to pay $90,000 for SROs
  • Students have started a petition asking state for assistance

New Dimensions High School is a non-profit 501(c)(3) charter that has been in the Poinciana area for 20 years. But recently, safety is becoming a well discussed topic among students and parents.

Karen Alers a parent at a student at New Dimensions High School said, “We as parents all pay the same amount of taxes. We have the same voting rights. We need to be treated fairly. Our children need to be treated fairly.”  

Osceola’s traditional public schools are paying $45,000 per school resource officer. However, the county commission decided charters like New Dimensions have to pay $90,000 for theirs.

But directors at the school say their safe schools allotment is only of $22,000. This year they did not re-hire a teacher in order to make up the difference, but they don’t know what can be done next year.

“If the state is putting out a mandate for all schools to have school safety officers, then they need to fund that mandate so that all public schools can have what they need to meet the law and to ensure safety on their school campuses,” said Tina Cafiero, one of the directors of the school.

We reached out to Brandon Arrington who oversees this district. He sent us a statement that reads:

“It is a shame that our Governor and State Legislators have put our schools and Local Government in such a bind by not funding the state mandated School Resource Officer positions that they made into law. It has caused local governments across the state to fight over who and how to pay for this new law.”

Nonetheless, students like Leonardo Garcia said they're the ones getting the short end of the stick.

“I hope we can make a change. I hope this can be the first step to show out there that we do matter cause we are a non-profit, a small school in a small county,” he added.

New Dimensions High students have signed a petition asking the state for financial assistance, they plan to deliver this to the governor's office.