11/2/2011 4:00:00 PMCleveland council presses schools safety chief on security
By Thomas Ott, The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland schools safety chief Lester Fultz has to slash 15 percent from his $11 million personnel budget by Dec. 1.
That could mean laying off nearly 40 of 250 officers, most of whom are security guards assigned to the schools. The 43,000-student district also has 23 patrol officers, sworn in as county deputy sheriffs, who watch neighborhoods as students arrive and leave for the day and work in buildings in between.
The reductions follow the loss of 18 to 20 Cleveland police, who were withdrawn from the schools in May after federal money to pay them ran out. The pending district cuts could be softened by concessions sought from employees.
Fultz, a former deputy police chief for the city, discussed school safety today with the City Council 's Public Safety Committee.
He expressed optimism that the security force can keep order with help from the community and continued collaboration with city police and other law-enforcement agencies. He said the schools are piloting identification badges at Glenville and Rhodes high schools and will continue citywide use of metal detectors, X-ray machines, early intervention and anti-violence education.
District records show a decline in security incidents over the last five years, though an October report Oct. Total (11-12).pdf shows a slight increase this school year. Fultz, who brought the data with him, drew criticism for not breaking down the statistics by school. He agreed to provide details later.
Councilman Jefrrey Johnson, pressing for information on Glenville High School and the elementary schools that feed it, said council members need full disclosure before deciding whether to support a tax increase. The district, which is slashing spending by $13 million, has indicated that it will soon need more money to solve mounting financial problems.
Councilman Matt Zone asked if an outside party had verified the security statistics. Fultz replied: "There's no advantage in my world to creating numbers that are not real."
Council members also raised eyebrows when Fultz hesitated to identify John Adams High School as the school where a student was recently caught hiding a .22-caliber gun and 20 bags of marijuana outside in bushes. Fultz said he did not want to characterize any schools as "more problematic than others."
Johnson blasted what he called a "reluctance to tell it like it is" but sounded a more conciliatory tone at the end the meeting.
"We got your back," he said. "We just want to be able to figure out what's going on."
Council members said they wanted to be notified when Cleveland police are called to schools in their wards. Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath, who attended the meeting, said he receives daily reports on signficant incidents and will make sure council members receive the information. <<Full Story