ORLANDO, Fla. -- Orange County's mayor and sheriff engaged in a little back to school squabbling Wednesday, over ensuring all schools are staffed with deputies as students return to class.

• Sheriff Demings: 66 to 79 deputies needed for SRO mandate
• Demings says he said plan to pay overtime was temporary while hiring more SROs
• Jacobs says Demings led her to believe a plan was in place

The argument revolves around a plan to place deputies at each of the 116 public schools throughout Orange County, as the district complies with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, signed by Gov. Rick Scott in March.

But how those law enforcement officers will be funded is at the center of fresh debate between Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs and Sheriff Jerry Demings.

“If the sheriff says he didn’t have the funding, that’s dodging the accountability. He’s had the funding," said Jacobs in a press conference Wednesday. “He said he was going to use overtime resources. Apparently that plan has not come together. That is a plan he needs to fill.”

“The implication that we would somehow compromise the safety of students is insulting," retorted Demings, in his own press conference later that day.

The leaders sent memos back and forth between their respective offices for months.

In a letter from May, Demings wrote to Jacobs and Orange County commissioners, saying for the 2018-2019 school year they would need between 66 to 79 deputies to comply with the mandate.

It would take months, however, to hire the necessary staff, so Demings said he would fulfill the mandate using mainly overtime for existing deputies, at an estimated cost of around $6.8 million.

This was, he wrote, "not a sustainable option in the long term."

Mayor Jacobs, however, said that as of a mid-July work session, the commission still did not have a finalized request from the sheriff. She said that she wrote to the sheriff, her concern growing, on July 19; by an early August meeting between the two leaders' staffs, she was under the impression that overtime would still be utilized.

“At that time, I was told the overtime costs would be covered by the school district, that was good news. And the cost to Orange County taxpayer would be very low, $3 million or less," she said.

She told reporters that, much to her surprise just prior to school starting, yet another memo from the sheriff came as a "huge shock." The only role of the county is funding, according to Jacobs.

“I received a memo that night indicating that he needed 75 positions. That again is not anything I had ever heard before. I heard he needed 75 positions for the following school year," she said.

But, Sheriff Demings argued that the county was aware of the need to hire more deputies all along. Demings hinted at another impetus for this debate.

“The responsibility to meet the requirements under the law is the school district's responsibility," Demings said. "The only thing that has gotten involved here is we have some people who are running for school board chair, running for other offices and they are using this situation as a platform for politics.”

Mayor Jacobs, who is term-limited, is running for Orange County School Board chairperson.

Demings, meanwhile, is running to take her place as Orange County mayor.

According to the sheriff, the office employs 2,600 people, 1,600 of which serve as deputy sheriffs. They are actively hiring new deputies.

"The good news is pay is up," he said Tuesday, while being interviewed on his mayoral candidacy. "It’ll just take time for us to find quality individuals.” 

The sheriff said in Wednesday's press conference that they have been able to deploy deputies to each of the schools throughout Orange County, and that the ink just dried on the agreement between his office and school district.

“I’m really perplexed as to why this has become a controversy," he said.

As for Orange County Public Schools' part, a spokesperson issued this statement Wednesday:

"Every district-operated school in Orange County has been assigned a law enforcement officer to serve as an SRO for this school year (18-19)."

News 13 Reporter Jerry Hume contributed to this report.