Polk County Sheriff Donald Hill recently met with members of Polk County Schools to discuss ways to offset costs for certain services, including drug searches.

Polk County Schools has over the past few years paid a contracted K-9 company to search the schools in the county, costing approximately $10,000, according to the Polk sheriff&squo;s office.

The sheriff&squo;s office has agreed to arrange the drug searches, coordinating with Henderson County&bsp; to save money for the school district. Officers from Polk and Henderson county sheriff&squo;s offices conducted a drug search with K-9s of Polk County High School last week.

Sheriff Hill says the cooperation between Henderson County Sheriff Rick Davis and Hendersonville Police Department has been outstanding and Henderson officers&bsp; were more than welcome to assist.

In the first month after he came into office, Sheriff Hill signed a joint mutual aid agreement with all the sheriffs in Western North Carolina.

By participating in the joint operation with Henderson County and Hendersonville, Polk sheriff&squo;s office officials say they hope to save the school system money.