Manatee County School District cancels security contract

How to best protect elementary school students will again be an up-in-the-air topic.

Effective Oct. 31, the school district will no longer contract with Sarasota Security Patrol, Inc. to provide unarmed security officials to area elementary schools, according to an Oct. 1 press release.

The decision to remove the guards resulted from recommendations from the district's staff and board attorneys and special counsel, who suggested the School Board violated Florida Sunshine Law. The public was supposed to have been notified on the meeting of the evaluation committee that reviewed the submitted proposals from security firms, the release stated.

The contract between the security agency and the School Board is void as a result of the violation.

The School Board expects the cancellation to remedy the lawsuit currently in place against the district by Citizens for Sunshine, Inc. The nonprofit organization sued the school district recently, because of the process for which the security firm was chosen.

Manatee County School District officials have not responded on whether the RFP process will resume or what's next for elementary school security.

Contact Amanda Sebastiano at [email protected].