District decreases spending for deputies

LANCASTER — With school campuses closed and students learning from home to help minimize the spread of COVID-19, Lancaster School District will spend less money on its contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for three school resource deputies and public safety equipment.

The District’s original contract with the sheriff’s department was from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019, with three additional one-year extension options. The contract was extended for one year in July 2019.

Lancaster trustees unani

mously approved an amendment to extend the contract from Sept. 1 through June 30, 2021 at an amount not to exceed $642,648 at Tuesday night’s meeting.

“The reason it’s a little late in getting to the Board is, we wanted to be able to negotiate a change in the service package for the sheriff’s department,” Larry Freise, assistant superintendent of Business Services, said at the meeting. “Because we don’t have kids on campus we don’t need the same level of coverage that we typically have.”

Under the new contract language, the sheriff’s department will bill the district only for the actual services provided.

“At this point right now we have our single deputy,” Freise said, “but with the anticipated return of students in spring that we would go back up to our regular count of deputies.”

The actual cost for the year will be well below the not-to-exceed amount of $642,648, Freise said.