Horry County School Board discussed safety in all Horry County schools Monday evening.

At first the board went into executive session for discussion of personnel and security matters, then the board discussed those options in front of the crowd.

Many of the board members brought up having armed guards or an increase in security in schools.

Currently all high schools and middle schools in Horry County have armed School Resource Officers.

They also have unarmed security guards that cost the county around $300,000 a year.

Some board members felt that elementary students were too young to understand the presence of an SRO.

The members also discussed ways to improve security that don't involve an officer.

"IP web based security where the police access to all our security cameras no doubt. These are all things that can be implemented checking the security of all the doors, we may have to improve locks on a lot of the doors, the glass surrounding it, all of those things can be done," said Board Chairman Joe Defeo.

Defeo said that a decision should be reached within two weeks. He also said that if they decide to put armed officers in elementary schools, they had the budget to do so.

Horry County Schools have had armed SROs in the middle and high schools since 1998.