There’s good and bad news regarding security in the Butler School District.

On the one hand, retired state troopers have been eager to take jobs as school security guards. On the other, the state Legislature’s approval last year enabling schools to form their own police forces has resulted in a huge demand for retired troopers becoming guards, and now districts are running out of qualified candidates to hire.

Butler should be commended for being ahead of the curve in 2012 when it started hiring retired troopers to keep an eye on schools just three days after the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Conn.

But at a school board meeting this week, administrators noted that other districts have followed Butler’s example. As a result, there is a shortage of retired troopers and municipal police officers seeking a school security post.

“It may hit the point where school districts are going to start outbidding other school districts,” said Paul Epps, chief of the district’s school safety team.

So, while it’s great news that so many retired members of law enforcement will extend their careers to ensure safety for Butler County students, it’s concerning that the talent pool is becoming increasingly thin.

We hope that a law currently making its way through the state Legislature will address the shortage. The Senate passed a version of the bill — which would allow retired sheriffs and their deputies, troopers, municipal police and military police to be hired as armed school security — and the House’s education committee recently began amending it.

Current state law allows retired state troopers or municipal officers to carry guns as school officers, whereas others — such as retired deputy sheriffs — can be on staff, but can’t carry weapons.

Of course, anyone else permitted to carry a gun on school property under the new law should be given additional training on responding to an emergency and when they should use their weapon in such a situation. But taking steps to grow the county’s school security team should be a given.

Districts across the county have been making good decisions this year on beefing up school security — including the Mars School District’s agreement to form a hybrid school police force, South Butler School District’s adding metal detectors and approving funding for additional resources for school police officers and new funding for alterations to Butler High School’s security entrance. These enhancements are necessary.

In 2019, Butler County has had a few school safety scares and there have been about 15 U.S. school-shooting incidents.

Maybe Epps is right about the shortage of school security candidates being temporary due to retirement cycles and that, in a few years, the district could be flooded with new applicants. Let’s hope that’s the case.

In the meantime, state legislators should prioritize addressing the school safety guard shortage by expanding the pool of possible applicants.