The Habersham County Board of Education has approved the hiring of a second School Resource Officer for Habersham Central High School.
Superintendent of Schools Matthew Cooper announced the new position during Monday night’s school board meeting. The officer will join SRO Griggs Wall at the high school which has a student population of over 1500.
More 2022 rankings: Out of 180 school districts in Georgia, Niche also ranked Habersham Schools 20th on its list of best places in Georgia to teach and 31st for having the best teachers in Georgia.
In making the announcement, Cooper said the position will be paid for through the school system’s general budget. He said the search for a new SRO will begin immediately.
Seven deputies are currently assigned to the SRO Program and serve in Habersham County’s fourteen public schools.
“I’m very excited. We will have eight full-time resource officers in the school system,” Cooper said. “It’s fantastic. Our parents and our students and our staff should be grateful for the great effort that we make in the area of safety in the Habersham County School System.”
Prior to announcing the new position, Cooper lauded the system’s safety rating, saying it has once again been named one of the 25 safest school districts in Georgia by niche.com. Niche is an online resource that analyzes school data nationwide to produce comprehensive rankings, report cards, and profiles for K-12 schools and colleges.
Habersham County ranks 18th on the list, just behind Rabun County Schools at number 17. Other Northeast Georgia county school districts on the top 25 safest list include Towns (7th), Union (11th), and Oconee (15th).
This marks the fifth year in a row that Habersham has made the list of Georgia’s safest schools.
