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Campus safety has been a frequent conversation for the school board this year, and Trustee Mark Kirby said there has been an increase in service calls to SRCS campuses.

“Over the last three years, 5796 events where SRPD was called to the campuses,” Kirby said. “That’s an insane number of events on our campuses. Perhaps what we are doing on our campuses isn’t working completely.”

Trustee Mark Kirby was one of four 'yes' votes.

“California’s constitution states that all students have the inalienable right to attend campuses that are safe, secure, and peaceful,” Kirby said. “It is our duty to ensure that our students have this constitutional right.”

Kirby, along with school board members Nick Caston, Sarah Jenkins, and Jeremy De La Torre voted in favor of reviving the School Resource Program (SRO) with the Santa Rosa Police Department.

Community comments focused on the importance of school safety, with some speaking in support of SROs, while others opposed.

“Our students have suffered enough,” one speaker said during public comment. “They have suffered fires, pandemics, and violence. And we need to get to the root of these causes, which is the trauma. And mental health providers, counselors and teachers, schools that are open and structured that’s going to meet those needs, not law enforcement that will criminalize our youth.”

School board trustees Omar Medina, Roxanne McNally and student board member Ome Zuniga voted no.

“I think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of what safety is with this program,” Zuniga said. “I think safety has a definition that applies to many different people in many different ways. And the constitutional right that you mentioned, Trustee Kirby also applies to black and brown students. It applies to all students.” 

“Police officers have racial bias, and power,” McNally said. “They have racial bias, and a gun. That makes it even more important to acknowledge that. And again, not trying to create distrust in our specific police department, it’s just something I’d like to acknowledge with the police department and us.

Since February the district has announced six school closures, sent layoff notices, and moved forward with campus consolidations.

Superintendent Daisy Morales said the funding for the SRO Program is expected to come elsewhere and not from the district budget.

“We have always said we don’t have the funding for the district to cover this,” Morales said. “The city is aware of that.”

Santa Rosa City Schools’ SRO agreement with Santa Rosa police would be for a three-year term, starting in July 2025 and ending in 2028.

“With all that’s happening in our schools right now and has continued to happen in the last couple of years,” Trustee Jenkins said. “I cannot emphasize enough the importance of getting a first responder on campus.”

Under the agreement, the Santa Rosa Police Department will assign one uniformed police officer to each of the city's five main high schools: Santa Rosa High, Piner, Elsie Allen, Montgomery and Maria Carillo.