In the wake of child’s death, district looks to increase
staffing
Gilroy – After a pickup truck cut short the life of a Gilroy first-grader Tuesday, many parents clamored for more crossing guards to shepherd kids across Gilroy streets.
“We need that visibility, that bright orange vest,” said Janine Kaloczy, whose daughter attends Luigi Aprea. Wednesday, she stopped to place flowers at a growing memorial for 5-year-old Julio Gonzalez. “There’s a lot of kids crossing these big intersections, and there’s no one to watch out for them.”
But hiring crossing guards is sometimes easier said than done in Gilroy. Ascension Solorzano Middle School added a new crossing guard at the intersection of Santa Teresa Boulevard and Club Drive this fall, with more and more students walking to school from the Eagle Ridge community. Yet driving past the school, you wouldn’t know it: the position has remained vacant.
“We only need them for 45 minutes in the morning, 45 minutes in the afternoon,” said principal Sal Tomasello. “That split assignment makes it very difficult” to find a guard.
Currently, there are four crossing guard positions left unfilled at Gilroy schools: 10th and Orchard streets (Gilroy High School), Chestnut Street and Old Gilroy Road (Eliot School) Hirasaki and Mantelli avenues (Rod Kelley Elementary School) and the Solorzano crossing, according to public information officer Teri Freedman. Most are new positions, said superintendent Edwin Diaz, created in response to parents’ concerns.
“Whenever there are issues that come up, and it seems reasonable, we’ll OK the position,” said Diaz. “But then the problem is filling it.”
Gilroy schools hire their own crossing guards through the Gilroy Unified School District: an anomaly in Santa Clara County, where most school districts work with the San Jose Police Department to fill the positions, said transportation supervisor Darren Salo. This week, Salo phoned six California school districts: Salinas, Oak Grove, Morgan Hill, Eastside, San Jose and Santa Clara.
“No district I talked to does their own,” Salo said.
Morgan Hill does not employ crossing guards, as a district, said student services coordinator Bob Davis, but the San Jose police department has coordinated hiring of crossing guards near Martin Murphy Middle School and Los Paseos Elementary School, two Morgan Hill Unified School District schools in south San Jose.
There’s nothing abnormal about hiring crossing guards through the school district: the California Education Code gives that responsibility to schools.
“To my knowledge, we’ve never been asked to do that,” said Assistant Chief Lanny Brown. “Gilroy isn’t really an exception – it’s following the guidelines of the Education Code.
“A lot of communities have chosen to transfer this responsibility to the police department,” he said, “but in our community, that transfer has not occurred.”
Salo thinks a transfer could be beneficial. Crossing guards hired through the police department “have more authority, better knowledge and training in traffic laws,” he said. “Many are retired officers, people that have been in law enforcement.”
In contrast, most Gilroy crossing guards are parents or school employees.
“Very few people just apply from outside for a crossing guard position,” Diaz said.
And unfortunately, he added, very few apply at all. It’s a difficult position to sell. Crossing guards work odd hours: one in the morning, one in the afternoon, with a four to five hour gap in between. In Gilroy, their wages are $10.36 per hour. Every winter, they guide kids through rain, wind and chilly weather.
“I don’t think it’s a real glamorous position,” said Diaz. “It’s a lot of responsibility, and they have to fight with people to make sure that they obey the traffic laws. That gets pretty wearing on folks.”
The school district advertises the positions through its human resources department, Freedman said. Friday, the jobs weren’t posted on the GUSD Web site. Kim Filice, human resources director, was out of the office Friday and could not be reached for comment.
Tuesday’s tragedy inspired parent volunteers to step up to the crosswalk. Terri Schoepe, a Welburn Avenue resident, was leading kids across Kern Avenue, bearing a homemade red flag, a day after Julio Gonzalez’ death. That’s perfectly legal, said Brown.
“If I decide, as a parent, that I want to walk kids across crosswalks, I could do that,” he said. “I’d be exercising my right-of-way, and being an extra set of eyes and ears. I could say to the kid, ‘Hey, watch out, look both ways.’ ”
What untrained volunteers can’t do, he said, is direct traffic.
“A parent couldn’t just throw on a bright colored vest and order a stop sign and go out and direct and control,” he said. “They need some kind of basic training, and it needs to be sanctioned by the school.”
Diaz agreed. Thursday morning, he, Freedman, and school resource officer Cherie Somavia met with Schoepe and another parent volunteer at the intersection of Kern and Welburn avenues, where Somavia offered some “on-the-job training.”
“What we are now looking at is, do we formalize a volunteer program?” Diaz explained. “If we do, then that includes a certain level of training.”
Volunteers could also be fingerprinted and given a background check, Freedman said.
In Morgan Hill, fifth and sixth graders serve as safety patrols in parking lots and crosswalks “immediately contiguous to the school,” said Davis. American Automobile Associate (AAA) supplies the students with sashes, helmets and signs.
Diaz wasn’t sure when the program dropped off in Gilroy, but he said he hadn’t seen student crossing guards “in a while.” At some schools, he said, parents and staff worried about the safety of student guards themselves.
“Drivers weren’t paying attention to the student crossing guards,” said Diaz.
Another issue, said Diaz, is how far from schools to place crossing guards. Instead of broadening guards’ reach, he said, the district wants to shorten kids’ commutes. A year ago, the school district adjusted its attendance boundaries and moved toward neighborhood schooling “so kids don’t have to cross major intersections.” But the redistricting only applies to new students, he said, to avoid uprooting kids from the schools they’ve attended for years.
The district places guards at intersections as they’re requested, Diaz explained. Complaints about problem intersections reach safety officer Roger Cornia through a variety of avenues: principals, Somavia, the Superintendent’s Parent Advisory Committee, and good old-fashioned parent complaints.
“If we’re going to err, we’ll err on the side of adding a crossing guard,” said Diaz,
But as the lonely crosswalk at Santa Teresa Boulevard shows, filling that spot is another story.
