Winter Park Approves School Resource Officer Contract

Winter Park Approves School Resource Officer Contract

Winter Park Approves School Resource Officer Contract

The resolution came after months of heated rhetoric from Orange County Public Schools

April 23, 2025

By Beth Kassab and Gabrielle Russon

The City Commission approved a new contract for its school resource officers on Wednesday — a deal that calls for Orange County Public Schools to pay the city at least $740,000 over two years.

After months of tense talks, commissioners voted unanimously in favor of the contract with the only comments coming from Mayor Sheila DeCiccio.

“We have always prioritized the safety of our children,” she said. “There was never an issue as to whether Winter Park Police would show up at school … at no time did Winter Park suggest using armed guardians. That came directly from Orange County Public Schools.”

She was referring to a school board meeting earlier this month and an email to parents last year where district officials floated turning to private security for certain schools without an SRO deal.

The new deal calls for the district to reimburse Winter Park $73,000 per SRO for the 2025-26 school year, a slight increase from the previous contract for $72,000 per officer. For the 2026-27 year, the district will pay $75,000.

But the proposed contract also includes provisions so if the district gets additional Safe Schools state dollars, then Winter Park could get paid more too.

Five Winter Park police officers are deployed across Brookshire Elementary, Lakemont Elementary, the Ninth Grade Center and Winter Park High main campus.

A review of public records by the Winter Park Voice shows how city officials and residents responded to the pressure the district put on the city to reach a deal amid rising SRO costs. Winter Park leaders were frustrated by the district’s handling of the situation when they began receiving a backlash last year from residents. Some parents said they were upset SROs could get pulled from schools and armed guardians — a private security force — could be in charge of protecting students, according to emails obtained by the Voice .

The district emailed OCPS families with direct language in mid-December.

“You are receiving this email because you have a child who attends one of the 30 schools potentially impacted by School Resource Officer (SRO) contract negotiations with the cities of Apopka, Ocoee, Windermere, Winter Garden and Winter Park and their local law enforcement agencies. The district has NOT been able to reach a multi-year agreement with them for SRO coverage of the schools within their jurisdiction,” the unsigned district message said. “The School Board strongly believes the safest option is for our law enforcement partners to provide SRO coverage on all school campuses. … Orange County Public Schools understands the financial challenges the cities are facing, but there is simply not enough funds in the State’s Safe School allocation to give more to the local jurisdictions without impacting the classroom.”

The OCPS email also included links so parents could contact officials from the five municipalities.

That sent Winter Park City Manager Randy Knight scrambling to reach OCPS Superintendent Maria Vazquez but the district restricted the superintendent’s access. 

“I tried to call you today but was told by the operator that she was not allowed to connect people to your office by phone.  She said I have to email you with the topic and request a call back,” Knight wrote Vazquez on Dec. 17.

Knight wrote the first negotiating session for the new contract wasn’t scheduled until Jan. 14 but the district’s “public negotiation strategy” was bad for both sides as he complained Winter Park has subsidized the SRO costs for years.

“In good faith, we operated much of this school year without a contract while we tried to work one out,” Knight wrote the superintendent. “I find it very disappointing that someone at OCPS decided to create ill-will in the community against our elected officials as a negotiating tactic.  It unfortunately puts us in a position of having to respond to each of those that write us with the facts of how much Winter Park taxpayers are subsidizing these officers in schools largely made up of non-Winter Park students.”

After the OCPS message to parents, Winter Park officials drafted a public records request for the school district to get “all correspondence/communication to include emails, text messages, transcripts, voice mails, notes between any board member, consultant,  superintendent, employee of OCPS or affiliated with OCPS that relates to the referenced subject/email to include who authorized the email being sent.”

The city also wanted other records to understand how OCPS spent its Safe Schools funding, the pot of state money where OCPS pays for SROs. 

Winter Park began crafting its own response to tell its side of the story as officials received emails from concerned residents.

“Did you know Guardians are only required to have 144 hours of training versus the over 1,000 hours of training a SRO has in one year?” Leslie Bobolts, the parent of a Winter Park High student, wrote the city Dec. 16. “I urge you to please work with the City of Winter Park police department in reaching an agreement on this urgent matter.”

Frances Ferrato, an economic analyst whose daughter attends Lakemont Elementary, also feared what could happen if SROs were gone.

“Recently, during school drop-off, an SUV mistakenly turned onto the sidewalk where children were walking into school. Officer Alvarado, who is always alert and attentive, immediately stepped in, placing herself between the vehicle and the students. Her quick response prevented what could have been a tragic accident,” Ferrato emailed the city Dec. 16. “I feel immensely safer knowing Officer Alvarado is on duty. … Replacing SROs with less qualified school guardians would compromise that safety.”

Months later, the district brought up the contract standoff again publicly. 

School board members slammed Winter Park and the other four cities for not yet reaching a contract deal during an April 1 OCPS meeting. 

“There is no other way to characterize that than they are negotiating in bad faith with us, and I am so disappointed and so frustrated,” said school board member Stephanie Vanos at the meeting.

Vazquez told school board members the district is facing an unprecedented financial crisis and urged the school board to reconsider exploring the controversial guardians program.

Knight declined to be interviewed at the time but commented in the online comments of an April 9 Winter Park Voice story.

“I just want to reassure everyone that the quotes from OCPS officials contained in this article do not accurately reflect the actual status of negotiations. The parties are very close to terms,” Knight wrote.  “Winter Park, along with the other cities involved in the negotiations, have chosen not to instill fear in the minds of our parents or to negotiate through public comments, as we feel that is unprofessional and unproductive.”

Apopka, Ocoee, Winter Garden and Windermere agreed to the same terms with the district.

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Winter Park reaches deal on school resource officers

Winter Park reaches deal on school resource officers

Winter Park reaches deal on school resource officers

Orange County Public Schools and five cities had been at an impasse for months over how much the school district would pay for the officers

Photo: Winter Park High School Resource Officer Christopher Belcore accepts an award earlier this year as the top employee for Winter Park Police.

April 16, 2025

By Gabrielle Russon

Orange County Public Schools reached a tentative two-year deal Wednesday with Winter Park and four other communities to continue staffing school resource officers after the two sides were stuck in a stalemate for months.

“Safety of the children and faculty in the schools has always been a top priority for both sides of these negotiations,” said Winter Park City Manager Randy Knight in a statement. “We are pleased to have reached terms agreeable to all entities involved that will keep this long-term partnership of providing School Resource Officers in place through the end of the 2026-27 school year.”

The proposed new contract comes after school board officials said they were going to consider deploying guardians, which is a private armed security force.

“We are grateful to the municipalities for their dedication to our shared goal of fostering a secure educational environment for all students,” said Superintendent Maria Vazquez in a statement. “This agreement represents the commitment we have to our schools and highlights the importance of collaboration in achieving our safety objectives.”

Lakemont Elementary is one of two elementary schools in Winter Park. Photo courtesy of OCPS.

The new deal calls for the district to reimburse Winter Park $73,000 per SRO for the 2025-26 school year and $75,000 for 2026-27 year, according to the terms released by the city of Winter Park.

But the proposed contract also includes provisions so if the district gets additional Safe Schools state dollars, then Winter Park could get paid more too.

The issue is scheduled to go April 23 before the Winter Park City Commission for final approval.

Winter Park, Apopka, Ocoee, Winter Garden and Windermere have been at an impasse with OCPS for months about the cost to pay for SROs. 

Five Winter Park police officers are deployed across Brookshire Elementary, Lakemont Elementary, the Ninth Grade Center and Winter Park High main campus.

OCPS, the 8th largest school district in the nation, currently pays Winter Park about $72,000 a year per officer. The cities had been seeking an increase that would cost the district an extra $2 million a year — or about $39,000 for the city of Winter Park.

Either side could terminate the new contract without cause with 180-day notice.

Earlier this month, Orange County School Board members slammed the five municipalities for asking for additional money as the district’s superintendent warned OCPS is facing unprecedented financial struggles ahead.

“There is no other way to characterize that than they are negotiating in bad faith with us, and I am so disappointed and so frustrated,” said school board member Stephanie Vanos at the April 1 meeting. “I would encourage them to remember that we are public education — we are not just a business. We have extremely limited funds.”

Knight declined to be interviewed at the time but responded in an online comment on the Winter Park Voice story.

“The parties are very close to terms. Winter Park, along with the other cities involved in the negotiations, have chosen not to instill fear in the minds of our parents or to negotiate through public comments, as we feel that is unprofessional and unproductive,” Knight wrote. “The current contract is still valid until the beginning of the next school year. Please know that safety of our students is always a top priority of the city. I am confident a deal will be in place before the current contract expires that is fair to all involved.”

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Gabrielle Russon is a freelance reporter and former reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, where she covered K-12 education, colleges and universities and the tourism industry. She lives in Orlando with her family and writes about politics, education, theme parks and the courts.

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Chamber-Aligned Political Committee Changes Address and Agent

Chamber-Aligned Political Committee Changes Address and Agent

Chamber-Aligned Political Committee Changes Address and Agent

Commissioners recently questioned if it was appropriate for the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce to operate Winter PAC, which raised more than $85,000 to influence elections, from a city-owned building

April 16, 2025

By Beth Kassab

Winter PAC, the chamber-aligned political committee that had come under fire from some city commissioners for operating out of a city-owned building leased by the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce, filed a change of address and change of registered agent with the city clerk this week.

Betsy Gardner, the president and CEO of the chamber, will no longer serve as the group’s registered agent, according to the document filed Tuesday.

Instead, Brian Mills, Winter PAC’s chairman and an attorney and lobbyist at Maynard Nexsen, will serve as the registered agent, the person appointed to receive official or legal documents and notices on behalf of the group. Mills is part of the firm’s “government solutions group” with clients in technology, manufacturing and the commercial space industry, according to the firm’s web site. He has previously served on Winter Park’s Board of Adjustments and was chief of staff to former Orange County Property Appraiser Rick Singh when Singh first took office in 2013.

An address listed for his law firm at 200 E. New England Ave. Suite 110 will serve as the political committee’s new address.

“Winter PAC was established to support a vibrant, engaged, and prosperous Winter Park community,” Mills said in a press release provided by the chamber on Friday. “After speaking with our stakeholders, many of whom have been lifelong residents of Winter Park, it has become clear that this issue of who collects our mail is a distraction from the more important business of how our community is being served. We appreciate the support and encouragement of the Chamber and its members.”

The decision came just days after City Attorney Kurt Ardaman told the City Commission that his firm would no longer be a member of the chamber because he was unhappy, in part, with how the group provided an option to donate to the PAC on the chamber’s membership renewal invoice.

Ardaman said his firm “inadvertently” donated $25 to the PAC, as result of paying the full invoice amount.

The Voice reported the donation in the context of the investigation Ardaman conducted at the request of several commissioners into whether the chamber was violating its lease on a city-owned building across from City Hall by using the same address for the PAC.

Ardaman said he stands by his opinion provided to the commission last month that the chamber is not in violation of the lease because it has not officially subleased or assigned any legal interest of the building over to Winter PAC, which has raised more than $85,000 over two years to influence city elections.

He said he did not know when he started the investigation based on a request from the commission that $25 paid at the same time he paid his firm’s chamber dues was sent to the PAC in January. The PAC has since returned the money.

The chamber says it has nearly 800 members. According to email correspondence between Gardner and Ardaman’s firm provided to the Voice by the chamber, 82 members have opted to pay an extra $25 for the PAC at the time of renewing dues while “hundreds” have chosen not to contribute.

The statement from the chamber emphasized Ardman’s opinion that the group is not in violation of its lease and said the PAC made the changes to its address “voluntarily.”

Commissioner Kris Cruzada, who Winter PAC attempted to defeat in the March election by backing another candidate, was one of the commissioners who said he still had questions after Ardaman’s report.

Cruzada declined to comment on Wednesday.

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New Manager Seeks to Build on Heritage Center’s Programs

New Manager Seeks to Build on Heritage Center’s Programs

New Manager Seeks to Build on Heritage Center's Programs

Jasmine Harris recently took over as the new leader for the center that preserves and shares Black history and art in Winter Park

April 14, 2025

By Gabrielle Russon

Unhappy as a data analyst doing financial reports at her corporate job, Jasmine Harris quit and took a leap. She went back to the University of Central Florida to get her master’s degree in public history.

Harris, who comes from an unlikely background merging storytelling and numbers, started last month as the new manager handling day-to-day operations at the Hannibal Square Heritage Center.

“I’m right where I’m supposed to be,” Harris said after finding her calling.

Harris is part of a resurgence at the Heritage Center as its new leaders hope to build deeper ties in the community and move past the former leader’s firing that played out publicly in the headlines.

The Heritage Center, which opened in 2007 in the heart of Winter Park’s historically Black Hannibal Square neighborhood, is run by the nonprofit Crealdé School of Art in Winter Park which hired Emily Bourmas-Fry to take over as school’s executive director in January.

The Heritage Center at 642 West New England Avenue in Winter Park.

“With any transition, there’s always going to be a new structure, a new vision, fresh ideas,” Bourmas-Fry said. “We have been busy.”

Bourmas-Fry and Harris said they are in the process of building an advisory committee of longtime Winter Park residents to help guide the center with its programming and exhibits. 

They also hope to restart a quilting program and explore holding meditative classes similar to when people gathered there during the Black Lives Matter protests for a community healing space. Other ideas could be offering help for people researching their ancestry.

Bourmas-Fry said she wants the center to partner more with local arts organizations and work with other communities to help them document their local Black history too. She hopes the Heritage Center, which keeps written stories, photos and oral histories as well as offering walking tours, can be a case study on how to document local Black history.

While the neighborhood surrounding the center has been largely redeveloped over the past three decades, the center aims to “be a model for recording and celebrating the culture, history and heritage of threatened communities everywhere,” according to its website. 

“Not every community has something like this,” Bourmas-Fry said. “And I’d like to really reach out to those communities and find out how we can help them.”

What’s also important, Bourmas-Fry added, is building a stronger link between Crealdé and the Heritage Center to remind people the two separate campuses are connected and under the same umbrella.

Like all arts organizations, funding also remains a priority, Bourmas-Fry said. Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed millions of dollars from local arts groups last year — including $60,000 for Crealdé. Bourmas-Fry has joined arts advocates to lobby in Tallahassee for the funding to be reinstated.

The center also recently hired a new marketing coordinator, Xena de La Tour, to better promote the center on social media.

End of an Era

Having Harris on board fills a big hole for the Heritage Center. 

Outgoing Crealdé executive director Peter Schreyer let go of previous manager and longtime community advocate Barbara Chandler in December.

Chandler did not respond to a request for comment for this story, and Bourmas-Fry declined to comment on the specifics of what happened.

The Orlando Sentinel reported Chandler’s termination came after “unapproved partnerships, failure to communicate key details, and repeated disregard for Crealdé’s policies,” according to an email Chandler shared with the newspaper.

“I hate to see personnel issues played out publicly,” Winter Park Assistant Manager Michelle del Valle wrote in a Dec. 30 email to a city spokesman that was obtained by the Winter Park Voice recently through a public records request. The city of Winter Park owns the Heritage Center’s building.

Chandler argued she had been wrongfully terminated in an open letter she sent out.

Some of Chandlers’ supporters voiced their shock that Chandler, who was once recognized by the Sentinel for making Central Florida a better place to live in 2022, was fired.

“In my humble opinion, this is a great loss since she was the only person fully-focused on HSHC, and no one else has the depth of connections and network to maintain that momentum,” wrote Ruth Edwards, the Winter Park Library’s education director, in a Dec. 13 email to Winter Park Mayor Sheila DeCiccio.

Since then, Chandler has been busy with her company, Barbara Chandler Productions, according to a recent Orlando Weekly story. Chandler is working with the Winter Park Playhouse for a quarterly cabaret series called Sounds of the World. The one-night show played last month with new shows coming in the future while Chandler also works on exhibits and gives walking tours.

Both Harris and Bourmas-Fry praised Chandler for her impact at the center and community-building. 

“She left a wonderful legacy behind the Heritage Center,” Harris said.

Bringing Stories Out of the Shadows

On a recent tour to a first-time visitor, Harris paused in front of a photograph of a young Black man smiling in his high school band uniform. 

Harris read the caption out loud that told the story of the young man later fighting in the Vietnam War and dying back home alone after suffering from PTSD.

Jasmine Harris stands near an exhibit inside the Heritage Center.

“The stories get lost,” Harris said as she reflected on the Heritage Center’s mission to remember Winter Park’s past. “It’s important to have them written down. If you don’t, then these stories stay in the shadows — marginalized voices.”

In her first few weeks on the job, Harris is learning Winter Park history and finding mentors who have lived it.

“I want to make sure I’m honoring the voices in this community because I understand I am an outsider coming in. I am African-American, but I am not from Winter Park,” said Harris, 29, who is originally from Boynton Beach and lives in Orlando.

It wasn’t until her high school senior year when Harris took African-American history. It clicked. In college, she switched her schedule to make room for history classes “even though my major was math and my advisors didn’t understand it,” Harris said. “OK, you’re taking Calculus 3 and then you’re going to the Psychology of the African-American? I dunno. I just like it all.”

Learning about Black history left Harris with a renewed sense of confidence and hope in a world where the lens into history is often framed by a white point-of-view. 

“As a young African-American woman growing up and looking at the mainstream to see that there’s nothing there … I had to go seek that out,” Harris said. “And it just makes you feel more whole in your identity as you navigate this world.”

Harris will finish her master’s in public history at UCF next year after getting her bachelor’s degree in actuarial science with a double minor in statistics and history, also at UCF.

Her background makes her a good fit for the job since Harris is already surveying visitors and analyzing trends which will help with growing the center and grant writing, said Bourmas-Fry who had reached out to UCF’s Africana Studies program for a recommendation when hiring the manager job.

“That was really vital for us, making sure that we got the right person,” Bourmas-Fry said. “Her breadth of knowledge and her love of history and her passion and the fact that she was so invested” is why Harris stood out.

Harris’ background focuses on African-American history from a global scale. Now, she is learning the dates and details in the 100-year-old-plus history of Winter Park to run the Heritage Center.

“I just can’t wait to see how I can be of service,” Harris said.

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Gabrielle Russon is a freelance reporter and former reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, where she covered K-12 education, colleges and universities and the tourism industry. She lives in Orlando with her family and writes about politics, education, theme parks and the courts.

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City Attorney Says His Firm has Left Winter Park Chamber

City Attorney Says His Firm has Left Winter Park Chamber

City Attorney Says His Firm has Left Winter Park Chamber

City Attorney Kurt Ardaman said his law firm is no longer a member of the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce after he was says he was unaware he made a contribution to its political committee at the time he paid his member dues

April 10, 2025

By Beth Kassab

City Attorney Kurt Ardaman told the City Commission on Wednesday that his law firm Fishback Dominick is no longer a member of the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce “based on a number of factors” in the wake of his look into whether the chamber is violating its lease on a city building by allowing its political action committee to reside at the same address.

Ardaman said he stands by his opinion provided to the commission last month that the chamber is not in violation of the lease because it has not officially subleased or assigned any legal interest of the building over to Winter PAC, which has raised more than $85,000 over two years to influence city elections.

He said he did not know when he started the investigation based on a request from the commission that $25 paid at the same time he paid his firm’s chamber dues was sent to the PAC in January. The PAC has since returned the money.

He did not disclose his membership or the contribution in his report. And he did not include that the chamber collects an optional portion paid at the time members pay dues for the political committee, apparently because he was unaware of it.

“I’ve not been happy based on a number of factors with the chamber …  So we’ve resigned from the chamber because we’re just not satisfied with it,” Ardaman told the board, noting that no one forced him to make the move.

Ardaman said that the information he obtained from chamber and PAC leaders was not taken under oath, but that commissioners could file a court action if they wanted to attempt to obtain sworn depositions or additional documents from the group.

None of the commissioners expressed a desire to file such an action.

Chamber Executive Director Betsy Gardner, who also serves as registered agent for the PAC, declined to comment. The chamber says it has nearly 800 members. According to email correspondence between Gardner and Ardaman’s firm provided to the Voice after this story was first published, 82 members have opted to pay an extra $25 for the PAC at the time of renewing dues while “hundreds” have chosen not to contribute.

A copy of the Fishback Dominick invoice shows the firm paid for three items on the same invoice: $595 in membership dues; $195 for an enhanced listing and $25 labeled as “optional voluntary contribution to Winter PAC, the Winter Park Chamber’s affiliated political committee.

Commissioner Kris Cruzada, the incumbent Winter PAC attempted to kick out of office this year by spending more than $30,000, thanked Ardman for his “disclosure” and “candor” and asked about other potential legal actions to remove the PAC from the building. The chamber signed a 99-year lease with the city for the building across from City Hall in 2005 and spent $900,000 on its development.

Ardman said he didn’t think such an action would be successful.

Warren Lindsey, a defense attorney and the newest commissioner who took office last month, also thanked Ardaman for his “professionalism” and asked if there were more details about the money paid from the PAC to the Chamber noted in Ardaman’s four-page memorandum.

The report notes $3,600 payments from the PAC to the Chamber listed on the group’s election cycle financial reports as “administrative fees/non-candidate expenditure” or “professional fees/expenditure regarding candidate.”

Brian Mills and Lawrence Lyman, the officers of Winter PAC, told Ardman’s firm that the payments were for the use of equipment such as copies or printers and for the chamber accepting and holding the political group’s mail, according to the report.

UPDATE: This story has been updated to add further clarification that the payments collected by the chamber for Winter PAC are collected at the same time as chamber dues, but are optional.  as well as to add additional information based on correspondence provided by the Chamber.

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