The Portland school board voted Tuesday to pay for police in schools despite criticism that, once again, the district failed to properly talk to students and teachers about a decision that will directly affect them.

Students, teachers and parents pleaded with the school board to delay the vote to allow more discussion about whether it is wise for the district to spend more than $1.2 million a year on nine police officers. The student representative on the board, Cleveland High senior Nick Paesler, also urged a delay.

But a majority of the board would not agree to delay the vote, and the resolution passed after some drama and confusion among board members.

Next, the agreement will got to the Portland City Council.

People had questions about whether the difference made by police officers assigned to schools was worth the cost. Several students said they do not know their school resource officer. Concerns about racial profiling and the sense of unease created by armed officers roaming the halls also run high among students who spoke out before the vote. The Portland Police Bureau has emphasized that of 5,000 calls to Portland schools last year, officers only made 13 arrests.

District officials and the Portland Police Bureau framed the new agreement between them as merely formalizing a practice that already exists. But that skirts the fact that the five-year agreement represents a new expenditure for the school district. Until now, the Police Bureau has provided officers to work in schools three days a week at no cost to the school board.

The reason for the change, Capt. Tashia Hager said at the meeting, is because the Police Bureau's budget is tight and the bureau needs to save money.

Board member Julia Brim-Edwards introduced an amendment to require a formal review every year to determine if the district wants to continue the service, noting that, although the agreement spans five years, the district can terminate it earlier than that. It's still unclear whether other school districts in the city, such as Parkrose, will also agree to pick up the bill for Portland school police officers that serve their schools.

"Our job is to educate students, and the fact that the city is not providing the resources to support the safety and security of our students is, I think, a failure of political leadership at the city level," Brim-Edwards said.

Students who spoke called out the district's effort to downplay the price tag of the agreement. They also questioned the district's efforts at student engagement and noted what little attempt at student feedback there was felt insincere. They also asked publicly why one of the sessions designed to solicit student feedback was held a 30-minute bus ride away from the nearest high school before school had let out for the day.

Board member Scott Bailey tried to get the board to put a vote off until February to get feedback from more students, school personnel and parents. He asked Hager if there was a reason the vote needed to happen immediately, and she gave no clear indication a vote had to happen this week. But Bailey's effort was unsuccessful. Only board member Amy Kohnstamm supported him.

Then, vice chair Julie Esparza Brown made a surprisingly play that nearly tanked the entire agreement. After a vote to delay failed, the board voted on the agreement itself. Bailey and Kohnstamm abstained and Esparza Brown voted no to palpable surprise.

After shock wore off among the board, someone asked if she would explain her vote.

Esparza Brown, the only board member of color, told the room that she'd been unfairly targeted as a person of color and that she was worried about how this decision would adversely affect children of color in schools. She also noted that she had also been against armed police in her role as a professor at Portland State University. The presence of armed officers at Portland State is once again being debated after campus police shot and killed a black man this past summer.

Esparza Brown's effort to kill the agreement didn't last. Bailey said he would change his vote. The board voted again and the agreement passed with Bailey, Brim-Edwards, Mike Rosen and Paul Anthony voting yes. Chair Rita Moore was absent. Kohnstamm abstained.

The meeting represented yet another chapter in Portland Public Schools in which the board faced heavy pushback from the community for what families and teachers labeled poor efforts to truly listen. Last school year the board had several bitter face-offs with families and teachers who begged to be heard, but who were rebuffed.

— Bethany Barnes

bbarnes@oregonian.com