VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Volusia County Schools could soon have their very own police department. 

It’s a proposal the school board is set to review at their meeting next week. 

Michelle Newman, the director of safety and security for the school district, says it has to do with giving five or six qualified school guardians more resources. 

“Basically this is just asking to afford us, us being those individuals who are guardians who also have active law enforcement certifications, to be able to act in the capacity of a law enforcement officer working within Volusia county school district,” said Newman.

According to Newman, the Volusia County school district currently has 22 sworn officers contracted from different agencies, and 80 guardians. Unlike the sworn school resource officers, guardians cannot make arrests and have limited access to resources. She explained about 10 of their guardians have the certifications to work as law enforcement officers, which would allow the district to rely less on outside agencies.

“By adding those extra five to six extra law enforcement officers here within the school district, then that allows us to take some of that burden off of them because right now when things happen on a campus where we do not have an SRO or SRD, then we are calling that local jurisdiction, hey we have a suspicious vehicle, we need to call in a tag number, so we are utilizing law enforcement to do that,” said Newman. 

Some parents, like Kim Short, were interested in learning more details about the proposal at Tuesday night's meeting.

Based on the information released on Wednesday, Short said she thinks this proposal could be a good thing, an advantage for children like her youngest, who only has a guardian on his school campus and not an SRO. 

“Anything that we can do to improve the quality for our children as far as getting things done better and faster, I am generally for,” said Short.

But one big question still remains for her. 

“I would like to see what the cost is, which is what I think most people are interested in hearing right now,” said Short.

To get this started, Newman says they’ll need to buy police cars with sirens, radios, and a computer dispatch program. 

“Is there going to be an additional cost? Yes," said Newman.  "Is it going to be a huge cost? No it is not.”

Newman was unable to provide an estimate of what the cost would be. 

“I believe whole heartedly that this will enhance the safety of our students, faculty and staff,” said Newman.

The school board will listen to a presentation about this and have a discussion before voting on Tuesday. If they vote for it, then Newman explained they will move forward, applying to the FDLE and FBI to establish an agency. She said it will be about a three to four month process.