The Cleveland Metropolitan School District has hired temporary security to patrol school parking lots after a rash of car thefts and break-ins that have frustrated teachers and staff throughout the district.
Last month, after cars were smashed at Sunbeam Elementary in Buckeye-Shaker, nearly all the teaching staff at the school called off, forcing the district to cancel classes for the day.
The district plans to hire new people through a contract with an outside staffing agency instead of assigning its own safety and security officers to monitor parking lots. The positions are intended to be temporary while the district evaluates its options for parking lot security, Jon Benedict, a spokesperson for CMSD, told Signal Cleveland. Benedict did not respond in time for publication to a question about the total cost of the contract.
In the past, the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (OPBA), the union that represents the school security officers employed by the district, has filed grievances against the district when it has hired subcontractors. Jeff Perry, the business agent for OPBA, told Signal Cleveland that in this case members want to see the district investment more heavily in security by hiring more officers internally.
“The school district tries to get family and staff feedback on a regular basis, and security is always one of the number one concerns,” Perry said. “If that’s the biggest concern, then why not put money into it?”
The district has long struggled with hiring adequate security staff in part because it pays low wages, which makes attracting qualified officers who have the necessary license and skills to work with kids difficult. Part-time security officers start at $17.48 per hour and full-time officers make around $19.50 hourly.
The temporary staff will make $19 per hour but aren’t required to have any of the same training or certifications that CMSD security officers do. Benedict noted that directly comparing the hourly rate to what CMSD employees make doesn’t take into account the benefits that those employees get.
He also told Signal Cleveland that under some circumstances — for example, when there are no officers willing or able to perform the work — the agreement CMSD has with the union allows for subcontracting.
Monitors are already out at some CMSD schools
CMSD stationed its first 16 temporary staff last week, and “additional monitors are in the process of being deployed,” according to Benedict. The district is currently looking at how many monitors it needs and the duration of their assignments “as part of a more holistic review of potential investments in CMSD parking lot security.”
There will not be staff at every school. The district also has CCTV cameras spread across its buildings and parking lots. But it recently ended its contract with Flock Safety, a company that provided it with license plate readers to help secure parking lot entrances.
The temporary staff are not expected to directly intervene when issues happen. Instead, they are expected to notify law enforcement, according to the job posting.
Errol Savage, president of the Cleveland Teachers Union, told Signal Cleveland he would rather see these parking lot monitors be hired as CMSD security officers than as subcontractors. But he is glad “the district is taking the safety of our staff and students seriously.”
“I’m glad that we now have parking lot monitors,” he said. “I wish that we would have had something in place sooner before so many cars were broken into, and so many people started to feel unsafe. But I’m glad that they’re doing the right thing now.”
