NATCHEZ &045; Pending final approval from the Board of Alderman, Natchez-Adams schools will only have two school resource officers on campuses this year, two fewer than they had last year.

The SROs, trained, full-time police officers, will work at the schools during school hours and cover their regular police duties when the students are at home.

In past years the SROs were funded by a grant, but those funds expired at the end of last year.

District administrators and the school board wanted to continue having an officer presence in the buildings but could only budget for two.

&uot;I would love to have a school resource officer in every school, a commissioned police officer,&uot; Director of Operations Wayne Barnett said. &uot;Instead of cutting back, I would want to be adding, but that wasn’t an option we were given.&uot;

The district will pay the officers for the time spent on school campuses, and the Natchez Police Department will pay for the rest of the time.

One officer will be stationed at Natchez High School, and the other will be either at Robert Lewis Middle School or Central Alternative. Superintendent Anthony Morris said the officers might spend time on more one than one campus.

The officers are trained to deal with any dangerous situations that break out but also develop relationships with students in hopes of preventing discipline problems.

&uot;SROs are a positive thing,&uot; Barnett said. &uot;You’ve got a trained, positioned police officer on campus. The kids get to know them as good guys, not someone you see when you are in trouble.&uot;

Morris said he would continue looking for other opportunities to increase the number of officers in years to come.

The district will also have 10 security personnel scattered among the schools.