TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THRU: Tom Kisela, City Manager
FROM: Dan Adams, Chief of Police
1. Subject
title
School Crossing Guard Program Discussion and Update.
body
2. Summary
As a part of the Fiscal Year 2024-2025 budget process, the City Council requested that each department bring back potential service reductions for City Council consideration. The Orange Police Department, among other service reductions, included the School Crossing Guard Program as a potential service reduction which was approved by the City Council on June 11, 2024. Per the City Council’s direction on August 27, 2024, this item is being brought back for City Council discussion and direction.
3. Recommended Action
recommendation
Provide direction to staff on reinstituting funding of the School Crossing Guard Program and consider contracting services for hiring, staffing, and management of the program.
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4. Fiscal Impact
None.
5. Strategic Plan Goals
Goal 1: Provide for a safe community.
a: Provide staffing and resources to deliver services that ensure public safety.
6. Discussion and Background
Due to current budget constraints, the Orange Police Department was asked to make a 10% budget reduction for Fiscal Year 2024-2025. These reductions included the School Crossing Guard Program (Program) in the amount of $425,000. During the June 11, 2024 City Council meeting, the Council voted (5-2) to eliminate the Program from the City budget effective July 1, 2024. Notifications to the affected employees and Orange Unified School District (OUSD) began immediately.
The Program has been in effect since December 21, 1971, when the City Administrative Manual, General, and Miscellaneous Section, Number V-B-1 (Section), described the criteria for school crossing guards. The Section explains how the responsibility for the safety of school children walking to and from school rests with parents; however, an adult crossing guard supervised by the Orange Police Department may be assigned to certain intersections. The Section further indicates crossing guards should only be provided for elementary schools. Prior to a crossing guard being assigned, the intersection must meet several requirements to qualify. There were initially 46 approved crossing guard locations.
California law does not require a municipality to provide crossing guards for students walking to and from schools. California Vehicle Code 21100 states local authorities “may” adopt rules and regulations by ordinance regarding the appointment of nonstudent school crossing guards for the protection of persons who are crossing a street or highway in the vicinity of a school. Recently many California municipalities disbanded their crossing guard programs and have outsourced to private companies.
The Orange Police Department identified 39 crossing guard locations for the 16 elementary schools within the City. The Police Department hired employees and managed the Program, attempting to fill every location. Since the 2018 OUSD academic year, the Orange Police Department has fluctuated crossing guard locations based on unfilled positions due to lack of personnel (Attachment). Below is a graph showing how many positions were deemed “filled” at the beginning of the school year. “Filled” means at some point during the school year, the location was staffed, and a crossing guard was paid for their services. 700 or more hours equates to an employee who worked their full allotted shift.
|
SCHOOL YEAR |
POSITIONS FILLED |
700+ Hours |
600+ Hours |
|
2018 |
27 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
2019 |
21 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
2021-2022 |
22 |
10 |
6 |
|
2022-2023 |
22 |
7 |
13 |
|
2023-2024 |
19 |
6 |
10 |
Since at least 2018, crossing guards were assigned to work two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, Monday through Friday, when school was in session. The pay scale for crossing guards ranged between $17.57 - $19.40 per hour. It requires physical abilities of walking, standing, and holding up a stop sign during all types of inclement weather. Due to the split work schedule, low pay, lack of flexibility, and working conditions, the City has had a difficult time staffing the crossing guard positions.
Since September 2019, the Police Department has opened six different recruitments for the position of crossing guard for a combined total of 565 days. During that time, we received 185 applications of which 26 were invited to an interview and only two applicants were hired. Since August 2021, the Police Department has opened three different recruitments for a Crossing Guard Supervisor for a combined total of 389 days. During that time, we only received 50 applications of which four were interviewed and none of the applicants were qualified for the position.
During the 2022-2023 school year, there were 22 part-time crossing guards for 39 designated locations, with 17 vacancies. Moreover, during the 2023-2024 school year, there were 22 crossing guards, of which three were inactive, reducing the number of crossing guards to 19. Due to personal and medical issues, the number of crossing guards continued to decline and eventually settled at 16 crossing guards. Several examples exist of locations where there was minimal crossing guard coverage. When there’s an extended leave of absence or sick call, there are no substitutions available. Below is a graph showing the intersections where there were approximately 500 hours or less of crossing guard coverage for intersections deemed “filled” at the beginning of the school year. This is in addition to intersections deemed “vacant.”
|
SCHOOL YEAR |
INTERSECTION |
HOURS |
|
2021-2022 |
Glassell/Wilson |
454 |
|
2021-2022 |
Tustin/Palmyra |
176 |
|
2021-2022 |
Santiago/Serrano |
34 |
|
2022-2023 |
Glassell/Wilson |
505.25 |
|
2023-2024 |
Canyon View/Aspen |
442.50 |
|
2023-2024 |
Prospect/Palmyra |
502.50 |
|
2023-2024 |
Cannon/San Juan |
421.50 |
Many of the crossing guards were retired from their primary careers. It was a common occurrence for crossing guards to call out sick, miss a shift for a doctor’s appointment, and be unable to perform their job duties as trained. When a crossing guard was unable to work their shift, other guards were resistant to moving their locations and adjusting to provide better coverage. Several crossing guards quit or were unable to return to work due to medical issues. Other crossing guards left to obtain higher paying jobs with more hours. These factors made hiring, retaining, and supervising crossing guards difficult and led to staffing inconsistencies. Orange Police Department personnel has spoken to OUSD officials several times about them assisting with funding or assuming the Program.
The effectiveness of the previous Program was limited due to factors listed in this report. Should the City Council choose to reengage in crossing guard staffing, the only efficient and proven option is outsourcing.
To evaluate options, Orange Police Department personnel contacted All City Management Services (ACMS), who currently provides crossing guard services for several Orange County agencies and requested a quote to provide service to Orange. As a full-service contractor, ACMS’ hourly rate includes the cost of labor, recruitment, background checks, training, equipment, and supervision. ACMS provided a quote for 16 crossing guards, compensated 4 hours a day for 180 days with a rate of $32.81 per hour, for a total annual not-to-exceed cost of $377,971. ACMS also provided a second quote for 39 crossing guards, compensated 4 hours a day for 180 days with a rate of $30.47 per hour, for a total annual not-to-exceed cost of $855,598.
ACMS is the only local company that exclusively provides private crossing guard services. ACMS currently employs over 8,500 crossing guards, serving over 314 clients. Noted below is a survey of crossing guard programs for surrounding police agencies noting the service provider and funding source:
• Anaheim PD - ACMS / City Budget
• Brea PD - ACMS / Police Budget
• Buena Park PD - ACMS / Police Budget
• Costa Mesa PD - ACMS / School District Budget
• Cypress PD - ACMS / City Budget
• Fountain Valley PD - ACMS / City Budget
• Fullerton PD - ACMS / Police Budget
• Garden Grove PD - ACMS / Police Budget
• Huntington Beach PD - ACMS / Police Budget
• Irvine PD - City employees / Police Budget
• La Habra PD - City employees / City Budget
• La Palma PD - ACMS / Police Budget
• Laguna Beach PD - ACMS / School District Budget
• Los Alamitos PD - ACMS / Police Budget
• Newport Beach PD - ACMS / School District Budget
• Orange County Sheriff Department - ACMS / Yorba Linda, Stanton, Villa Park, unincorporated Orange at intersections of Hewes/Walnut; Hewes/Spring; Esplanade/Spring
• Placentia PD - ACMS / 5 positions Police Budget and 6 positions School District
• Santa Ana PD - ACMS / Public Works Budget
• Seal Beach PD - City employees / Police Budget
• Tustin PD - ACMS / Police Budget
• Westminster PD - City employees / Community Services Budget
7. ATTACHMENTS
• Guard Locations