MARTIN COUNTY — With only about 28 days before the start of the new school year, the status of school resource officers in public schools here is in question.
And just when the School Board and the Sheriff’s Office thought they had a deal.
The School Board was poised to approve a three-year contract with the Sheriff’s Office July 15, but with questions remaining about overtime pay, school crossing guards, officers’ hours and costs apparently still unresolved, the board left the proposed contract on the table without even a vote.
Schools not at risk
“I’m not going to vote for approval of this at this time,” said board member Christia Li Roberts. “I know it doesn’t put our schools at risk. The old contract continues on until we have a contract. But I think these things need to be answered and need to be included as part of the contract before I would feel comfortable voting on it.”
Just two months ago, an agreement for a new contract supposedly had been reached after hours of negotiations. The School Board, Sheriff John Budensiek and Superintendent Michael Maine stood together at a May 16 news conference touting the agreement as a compromise to end the social media battle that erupted one day earlier with both sides taking swipes at each other.
Budensiek was unavailable for comment.
The district currently pays about $3.3 million for the Sheriff’s Office to provide 34 school resource officers for elementary, middle and high schools, including 12 at elementary schools, five at middle schools and two at each high school.
The Sheriff’s Office had requested a 63% increase, to $5.4 million, for the upcoming school year. In the end, both sides agreed the district would pay $4.5 million, with the Sheriff’s Office contributing $3 million, which was to include about $800,000 for school crossing guards.
Board member Brian Moriarty, however, suggested at the July 15 meeting the board look into other options, even though it supports the school resource officer program.
“There’s not a whole lot of wiggle room in here,” he said about the proposed contract. “This is a huge expense for the district, and there’s no pivot to anything else. It’s basically this or nothing. I think at some point we need to look at other options just to see if anything else is available.”
Moriarty questioned whether so many school resource officers were needed and wondered whether reductions could be made in some areas.
The need for ‘other options’
“We need to have other options to have some leverage. Otherwise, basically this is what we’re going to have to pay, and this is a huge expense,” he said. “I think we have to really look at that regardless of how much we think it’s a great value for our schools.”
There are a lot of questions, School Board member Marsha Powers agreed. The board should spend the next year exploring available options with the sheriff, she said.
Martin County School Board members stand with schools Superintendent Michael Maine and Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek at a joint news conference May 16, 2025, to discuss the new school resource officer contract.
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District staff plans to bring more information back to the board at its next meeting, district spokeswoman Jennifer DeShazo said in a text message.
“For now, we’ll continue under the terms from the previous contract,” DeShazo said.
The next regular School Board meeting is Aug. 19, eight days after the new school year begins. A special meeting is scheduled Aug. 5 to discuss the 2025-2026 budget.
This story will be updated.
Colleen Wixon is the education reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers. She covers school districts in Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie counties.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: School Board members question school resource officer contract