Belmont School Crossing Guards - Availability In The 2020-21 School Year

Press release from Belmont Public Schools:

September 25, 2020

Dear Parents:

"The Belmont Police are responsible for covering 16 crossing posts twice a day in the mornings and afternoons. Crossing Guards are assigned to each post, and we have reserve crossing guards to fill in when a permanent crossing guard is absent. We currently have three full time crossing guard vacancies as well as three reserve vacancies. We are attempting to fill both positions.

Please know that when a reserve guard is not available to fill a vacancy, we then attempt to fill the vacant post with a police officer. In the 2019-20 shortened school year (6.5 Months), we had to fill a crossing post with a police officer 654 times.

School Crossing Guard Changes

Wellington School

There will no longer be a School Crossing Guard assigned to the intersection of Common Street and School/Waverley Street.

Winn Brook School

There will no longer be a School Crossing Guard assigned to the intersection of Cross Street and Brighton Street.

Both of these intersections are signalized and allow for dedicated pedestrian crossings. The pedestrian actuates the signals and traffic in all directions comes to a stop.

For the first few weeks of school, we will staff these intersections with officers that will help instruct students on actuating the signals and crossing the street.

In addition to these changes, please know there may be times when we attempt to fill a vacant post with an officer and the officer is not able to arrive on time for the crossing post.

The officer’s absence could be due but not limited to any of the following:

• The number of vacant posts is greater than the number of officers working
• An officer is not available due to an incident
• The officer had to leave the post to respond to an incident

If you notice that a post is vacant, please call 617-993-2501 or 617-484-1212 and make an inquiry as to why the post is vacant."

Sincerely,
James MacIsaac
Police Chief

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This press release was produced by the Belmont Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.