Officials in the Georgia school district where four people were killed in a September shooting at Apalachee High School are considering a property tax increase to pay for school-based police officers.
Barrow County Superintendent Dallas LeDuff told school board members Tuesday that the tax increase would be necessary because county government has informed the school district that it will no longer pay for sheriff’s deputies, local news outlets reported.
The school district and Barrow County Commission have been splitting the price of deputies assigned as school resource officers since 2017. That number was originally 12, rose to 16 in 2024, and then to 24 after the shooting. That would place at least two officers in the district’s high schools and at least one officer in every other school, although officials haven’t yet been able to hire 24 deputies.
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