With a deadline that has come and gone, Stafford is still looking for an elementary school protection officer

STAFFORD — Two of the three police officers politicians promised parents would protect Stafford’s elementary school are in place.

Sheriff David Decatur is working to hire the third deputy to make good on the $481,000 promise to place school protection officers in three county elementary schools. When the elementary school protection officer pilot program was approved by the Stafford County Board of Supervisors in May, the goal was to have the three part-time deputies in place by the start of the 2018-19 school year.

A good economy and competition from surrounding county and federal police agencies that pay more have spelled difficulty for the Stafford sheriff’s recruitment effort not only for elementary school protection officers but for new deputies across the board.

Right now, school protection officers are inside all of the county’s high and middle schools, and in Moncure and Hartwood elementary schools, said Decatur. Those two elementary schools were chosen by the School Board, in part, due to their location — Hartwood in a rural area and Moncure in a suburban area next to Interstate 95.

The first elementary school protection officer retired from the Stafford sheriff’s office and decided to come back and work in a part-time capacity. The second splits his time between working at the county courthouse and the elementary school.

Decatur says he’s working with elected officials in Richmond to bring changes to the Virginia Retirement System that currently puts restrictions on the number of hours retirees may work. The system limits the number of hours part-time employees can work while still collecting a pension.

The plan is to keep the elementary school protection officers as part-time positions, and lifting some of the VRS restrictions would help recruit more applicants for the job, said the Sheriff.

Decatur says the county needs the school protection officers and says he will continue to work to meet the goal of filling the third and final position.

Following the school shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. on February 14, the Sheriff convened a school safety task force which recommended the school protection officers.

“The task force has gone well,” Decatur told members of the Stafford County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

The task force also made recommendations to the SCountyd County School Board. One of them was to hire someone who is solely responsible for safety and security at the school division.

Right now, that job falls on the shoulders of the Risk Management director is also tasked with other responsibilities to include administering workman compensation to employees, Decatur adds.