The city of Alexandria will pull all police officers from public school hallways — ending a program that began nearly three decades ago — following a narrow and contentious vote by the city council earlier this month.

The council voted 4-3 on May 3 to reallocate nearly $800,000 used for the School Resource Officer program, which sent five officers into Alexandria’s one public high school and three public middle schools to patrol the hallways and keep order. The money will go instead toward initiatives meant to boost students’ mental health, although city officials are still working out the fine details with Alexandria City Public Schools.

The cancellation of the police program follows a debate led to pushes in several states, often led by students, to remove police officers from school campuses. Major school systems — including those in Minneapolis; Seattle; Oakland, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Denver and Los Angeles — have either shrunk or nixed their in-school police forces in the wake of the death of George Floyd.