The Hillsborough County School Board rejected parts of a new security plan on Tuesday proposed by Superintendent MaryEllen Elia.
Elia's plan would have put an armed guard at every school, provided crisis management training and controlled access to school campuses.
It's estimated it would have cost about $4 million a year.
Board members did vote to hire a consultant to make recommendations on security. They also plan to discuss the issue in-depth during a workshop in the near future.
"The money is a huge issue," said school board member Cindy Stuart, "Federal and state funds while they may come for this, they're going to run out."
School board member Dorothy Edgecomb said she did support some of the ideas in the plan. She said school resource officers that are already in place at many schools have proven to work.
"If I can recall there was never an outcry when we placed them in those schools," said Edgecomb. "No one said it was a bad idea, no one talked about it looking like an armed camp, no one said it was a knee jerk reaction."
School board member Susan Valdes said she felt the board should have had more input before Elia made the plan public.
"'It's a good PR campaign Superintendent Elia. Good job. I think it was very much political posturing and using a situation that has occurred at another place as a wake-up call," said Valdes.
Elia responded by saying she was not trying to rush anything.
"The press conference that I had came as a result of what we anticipated would be a high interest in this. At every point in that press conference, multiple times, I indicated this was a decision the board would have to move forward on," said Elia.
Board members did vote to hire a consultant to make recommendations on security.
They also plan to discuss the issue in-depth during a workshop in the near future.