The Knoxville City Council approved an extension of the school resource officer partnership with the Knoxville Community School District at their meeting Monday night.

The current three-year agreement was about to expire and the agenda item at the meeting Monday was for a five-year extension. The council ultimately voted and approved a three-year agreement instead of five in a 3-1 split vote. The school resource officer is a designated Knoxville Police Officer that is in the schools and half of their salary is paid for by the school district through a 28E agreement. Knoxville City Manager Heather Ussery says the city is looking forward to continuing the partnership.

“Overall the staff as well as city council and the school board are very happy with the partnership that we have between them for this position. The school pays 50% of the officers wages for the school resource officer so we are looking forward to continuing that partnership for another three years.”

Hear more about the partnership from Ussery on today’s Let’s Talk Knoxville.