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.”
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.”
WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
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.
Thank you Randy, Mayor DeCiccio, City staff and Commissioners for always supporting your youngest residents. We appreciate you working so hard to negotiate with OCPS to ensure our children are as safe as possible.
This is great news. It’s important to note that the school district cannot generate revenue; its revenue is determined by the Florida Legislature. Every extra dollar paid to cities for SROs is a dollar that must be pulled from the classrooms. It’s all the same pot of money.
I’m happy the parties reached an agreement.
They have more revenue than they know what to sensibly do with it. Costs skyrocket yet student performance lags.