Sheriff’s Office to provide SRO for Faith Christian School

ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Board of Commissioners approved the establishment of another deputy sheriff School Resource Officer position at its regular business meeting Monday.

The position will provide services to Faith Christian School, a private school with a student body of 350-plus students from preschool to 12th grade located in Ramseur.

“The purpose of this position will be to foster a safe and secure environment for staff and students, build positive relationships between law enforcement and the school community, address any potential safety concerns and respond quickly to incidents and provide education on safety and crime prevention to students,” Col. Steven Nunn said.

Nunn said the total cost for the new position will be approximately $94,000, but Faith Christian will cover around $86,000. The remaining $8,000 will be funded by the Sheriff’s Office’s lapsed salaries.

After this year, the school will cover 10 out of the 12 months of the officer’s salary, which is consistent with SRO contracts done with public and charter schools in the county.

“I think the public might like to know that any officer who serves in a capacity at a school must be certified in school resource training if they spend over 19 hours a week at the school,” commissioner Hope Haywood said.

Nunn said the officer selected is a retired officer from the state highway patrol and there is no worry about staffing effects at the Sheriff’s Office.

“This is something that Faith Christian has requested,” Nunn said. “We do have an officer picked out for this position that Faith Christian is on board with as well.”

At this time, no other private schools have approached the Sheriff’s Office about potentially staffing SRO officers.

The board also authorized the use of approximately $64,000 in law enforcement restricted funds to purchase body and in-car cameras. Both contracts are with Axon Enterprise.

The board also approved a resolution authorizing the county manager to execute the necessary documents to enter into various opioid settlement agreements.

“Randolph County has been involved in national litigation against those who were marketing, selling and distributing opioids,” associate county attorney Aimee Scotten said. “There have been recently proposed additional settlements by secondary opioid manufacturers.”

The county will enter into settlement agreements with the secondary opioid manufacturers (those companies include Alvogen, Amneal Pharmaceuticals, ApotexCorp, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Indivior, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Viatris and Zydus Pharmaceuticals) as well as settlements related to the Purdue Purdue bankruptcy and with the Sackler Family.

According to Scotten, the county could bring in around $2 million in total from the settlements.

The Randolph County Board of Commissioners will next meet Sept. 8.