Demopolis City School Board approved the hiring of Demopolis City police officer, Marcus Williams, as an extra school resource officer in a called meeting Thursday morning.

Williams comes in addition to the school resource officer, William Gulley, who is already in place working with the school system.

The officer will be employed for this school semester ending on May 24 and DCS will reimburse the City of Demopolis for the salary and fringes of the officer during this timeframe.

The cost of employing this officer will be about $16-17,000 dollars, according to Demopolis Police Chief Tommie Reese.

“We hope this gives everyone an enhanced sense of security,” DCS Superintendent Al Griffin said. “We want everyone to know safety is the number one concern of myself and this board.”

Reese said responsibilities of the officer will include walking in classrooms, tending to any problems occurring in the schools, helping the principals and other things.

Williams will work primarily at Westside and U.S. Jones and Gulley works mostly at Demopolis Middle and High schools.

The initial efforts of DCS began with hiring an off-duty police officer, but in efforts to adhere to scheduling and secure a constant person would be in place, Williams was hired.

The school system will do a budget amendment to include the cost of the additional officer.

In other business, the school board approved a motion to allow the superintendent the discretion to determine fiscal responsibility for mass mailings by each campus at the central office.

This will allow Griffin the chance to approve mass mailings done at the Demopolis Board of Education, which include schools notifying students of immunizations.

The school board also approved personnel actions, which included accepting the resignation of DMS English Language Arts teacher, Donmonique Gracie.

The board will post the position at DMS until it is filled. Griffin said he hopes posting the position early will allow the school to get on the front end in finding a good applicant.