Final Word on Ebeling, Beck Crossing Guards Expected Tonight

Unless the recommendation Supervisor Mark Grabow is slated to make at tonight’s board of trustees meeting calls for a change in the 2011-12 township budget, and Beck elementary schools will not have the funding necessary to provide crossing guards for the upcoming school year.

Debate over the expense and necessity of guards at these locations started in January 2010, when Utica Community Schools opted to discontinue its funding of the program for the 2010-11 school year. 

Citing a 1949 state law that calls for crossing guards to be paid for by local law enforcement agencies, UCS transferred responsibility for the guards to Macomb Township, which contracts with the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office.  

While Macomb Township , trustees opted to use the results of a Macomb County Department of Roads study to determine whether the service would be warranted for the 2011-12 school year.

After reviewing the results of the study, which indicated that the guards were unnecessary, the board voted not to allocate funds for 2011-12.

This decision was met with opposition from many parents, including Ebeling Elementary School PTA President Gracie Battani, who has addressed the board numerous times in past months.

“,” she said. “It keeps going back to that. I think that's where (the supervisor) and I don’t really agree and that is what it comes down to, really. The survey didn’t show the real picture.”

However, Grabow maintained the opposite at the board’s July 27 meeting.

"The studies are clear," Grabow said. "This is something the township did under requirements because the schools did not under the (Jasmine Miles School Children Safety Act. The act) requires crossing guard areas to be reviewed and verified. You can't just go out and put crossing guards in the middle of intersections."

Although Grabow’s recommendation tonight will be the final word on the issue for 2011-12, Battani said she and other parents will continue “pushing to negotiate” for the future should guards not be employed.

“We don’t know of any other solution before school starts in September, so in the worst case, we’ll try to reconvene in a small setting and see what we can do,” she said. “We don’t have any backup at this point.”

Battani said even two crossing guards, one at Haverhill and Tilch and another at Tilch and Goldridge, would satisfy.

“We understand compromise and cost-effectiveness, but we can’t see any way around having those two posts covered,” she said. “If (the service) ran like it did last year, there were two permanent people assigned to those posts. In our eyes, that is still significantly less than we had. We had five (at Ebeling) last year.”

Employing 11 guards total in 2010-11, the township spent between $4,000 and $4,200 a month.

With or without crossing guards, the schools will provide the Safe Routes to School Program, which teaches children traffic safety.

Stay with Patch for the outcome of tonight's meeting at .

Timeline

January 2010—Utica Community Schools informs Macomb that it is removing crossing guards from its budget.

June 2010—Crossing guards are terminated at the end of the 2009-10 school year.

August 2010—The township board agrees to temporarily accept costs for crossing guards at Beck and Ebeling elementary schools. The board agrees to pay up to $16,000 for 90 days of operations for the guards.

January 2011—The cost of guard services is estimated around $18,000 as the program continues past the original 90 days.

The board votes to continue to pay for the crossing guards until the end of the school year.

July 27, 2011—Referring to the guidelines of the Jasmine Miles Safety Act—which require a study be done to determine if guards are necessary for an area—Grabow says the township has no legal responsibility for the guards, as the Department of Roads study said guards were unnecessary for the two locations.