With too few crossing guards, NLV shifts focus

By Anthony Ramirez

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010 | 2 a.m.

Three weeks into the new school year, North Las Vegas doesn’t have enough crossing guards for all of its public schools because of a hiring freeze. The shortage is 24 guards.

So guards are being reassigned from middle schools, which typically teach students ages 11 to 13, to elementary schools, with students as young as 5. High schools generally do not have crossing guards.

There are 29 elementary schools and seven middle schools in the city, which is a separate municipality from Las Vegas and Henderson but part of the Clark County School District.

In an e-mail message Friday to a city councilman, a principal expressed concern.

Ken Sobaszek, principal of Findlay Middle School on West Tropical Parkway near Commerce Street, said he had learned that day “our crossing guards would no longer be working with us ... This is quite alarming for a number of reasons.”

He said Commerce Street is potentially dangerous. “Drivers do not always observe the 15-mph school zone before and after school,” Sobaszek wrote. “In addition, parents double park, making it difficult for other drivers to see students attempting to cross the street.”

The North Las Vegas Police Department hires, trains, pays and assigns crossing guards.

Police spokeswoman Chrissie Coon said guards are being shifted “to basically give the younger children the priority, because they need the most help.”

She said to match last year’s coverage of middle and elementary schools, the city would need 129 crossing guards and, as of Tuesday, it had 105.

The City Council is scheduled to address the shortage Oct. 6.

Coon said the hiring freeze, begun in December 2009, has left positions unfilled.

Police officials will seek council approval for an exemption from the hiring freeze for crossing guards at the Oct. 6 meeting.

Coon said the department’s school crossing-guard coordinators are working with schools to notify parents. “It’s not a matter of we don’t want them there,” Coon said. “It’s a matter of we have to prioritize.”

Like other localities in Nevada, North Las Vegas has made budget cuts because of the recession, an exodus of city residents and a drop in tax collections. In June, the city eliminated nearly 200 positions.

Mayor Shari Buck said she is working with parent groups and the School District.

Parents might be able to volunteer as temporary crossing guards, she said, and perhaps the district can find money somewhere to hire guards.

But Superintendent Walt Rulffes seemed to shut the door on helping North Las Vegas.

“The district has no jurisdiction on public streets, nor is funding available,” he wrote in an e-mail message. “CCSD is facing massive cuts and will not take over crossing guards on public streets.”

However, if a child is hurt at a middle school without a crossing guard, the parents might sue, Buck said. “It’s a liability issue,” she said. “We’re trying to find a solution.”

She noted her city has troubles too — it must still balance its upcoming $149 million budget and faces a $25 million deficit.

And even with a waiver of the hiring freeze, two new schools — Vincent L. Triggs Elementary and Ruby Duncan Elementary — won’t have crossing guards. Traffic studies are required before guards can be assigned.

William Robinson, mayor pro tem, and Councilman Richard Cherchio expressed confidence that the five-member council would lift the hiring freeze.

Ruben Murillo, president of the Clark County Education Association, which represents most of the district’s 18,000 teachers, fears the situation has reached a crisis.

“All it takes is one student to get hit or killed to show the importance of a school crossing guard,” he said. “Drivers in Las Vegas are horrible.”

Moving crossing guards from helping older students to younger students “should be a last resort,” Murillo said. “Eleven years old is still pretty small.”

He added: “Every year there seems to be a shortage of crossing guards. It’s kind of unfortunate they waited this late in the game.”

There is high turnover among crossing guards, so they must be replaced often, Coon said. The position offers $9 an hour for three hours of work a day, with no health or other benefits.

“They’re often elderly, retired people, stay-at-home moms and people who just want to help children,” she said.