Last Tuesday the Hillsborough County School District board rebuked Superintendent MaryEllen Elia's proposal to put an armed security officer in every elementary school next year at a cost of $4.1 million.
It came a week after she approved a plan to spend $2 million of the district's contingency fund this year to tighten security in elementary schools.
On Friday afternoon Elia discussed the issue at Maestro's, the restaurant located inside the Straz Performing Arts Center complex in downtown Tampa at an event sponsored by the Tampa Tiger Bay Club.
Elia's proposal was only one of a package of measures the superintendent brought before the board last Tuesday at their first meeting since the tragedy at Sandy Hook. But it was the school security measure that dominated the headlines after the proposal received little support from board members. Several board members said they felt uncomfortable being placed in such an intense situation, even as the national conversation about guns and school safety continues in the wake of the horrific massacre.
This article appears in Jan 17-23, 2013.