VIERA, Fla. — Brevard County Public Schools leaders are moving forward with training and arming staff as part of a new Guardian Program created to be a supplement to existing school resource officers.

Participants are made up of non-classroom staff who volunteer, are vetted by the principal and go through a partnership that involves extensive training and evaluation with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.

It’s called the Sheriff Training On Site Marshal program, or S.T.O.M.P.

Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said the staff training exceeds what other state school districts require.

“The state of Florida put the level of training for a guardian at 140 hours," Ivey said. "We jacked ours to 170 — we take it to a completely different level."

In addition to weapon expertise, the sheriff said the training also covers medical skills and ongoing re-training.

He said the idea came after the Parkland school shooting in 2018, but said he believes the program should have been put in place even before that tragedy.

“Thank you to Dr. Rendell and our current school board for seeing the value and importance of this program to make sure we are doing everything we can to prevent an active shooter on our campuses,” Ivey said.

The school board voted this month 4-1 to implement the measures.

A bit of drama came with the decision, though, as some parents said the vote caught them off guard.

The item was pulled off the meeting agenda the night before, but was re-added the next morning about an hour before the meeting began.

District 4 board member Matt Susin said approval of the program was done to allow more notice for those chosen for the guardian program to go through the training, which begins on July 1.

“We needed to have that time there ... so no controversy, plenty of time,” he said. “The conversation was less than 10 minutes for the topic, and it was something that four of the board members were going to support. We indicated that from the beginning.”

The lone "no" vote came from board member Jennifer Jenkins, who said, "adequately staffing schools with professionals whose primary responsibility is only security, not as an addition to student interaction, should be the goal."