MUSD secures nearly $1M for new school counselor, SROs

School safety grants will enable the Maricopa Unified School District to hire an elementary-level counselor and school resource officers at three schools.  

The grants of nearly $1 million fund a new counselor at Butterfield Elementary and school resource officers at Desert Sunrise High School and Desert Wind and Maricopa Wells middle schools, the district announced at a June 14 meeting.  

With the Butterfield position, the district will have a counselor at every school, with an additional shared counselor among the four largest elementary schools. 

“We are able to look forward to next year with a mental health counselor at every site,” Assistant Superintendent Tracey Pastor said.

The district had requested this spring funding for four school resource officers and eight counselors during a competitive award cycle through the state School Safety Program. The grants are offered on a three-year cycle, with the current cycle running through the 2025-2026 school year. 

“We just recently learned that we were successful in a total award amount of $933,285. We’re all very pleased to know that we secured this funding for the next three-year cycle,” Pastor said.

The school resource officers will act as another layer of school safety, board member Torri Anderson said.  

“I look forward to seeing the SROs on campus,” she said. “I want to complement each of our school staff sites that work so well with our police department.” 

The School Safety Program in the state Department of Education “supports, promotes and enhances safe and effective learning environments for all students by supporting the costs of placing school resource officers, juvenile probation officers, school counselors and school social workers on school campuses,” according to its web page.