A funding gap has Colwood parents looking for a way to keep children safe on busy roads during the next school year.
As the school year wraps up, so does the long-standing agreement that had the Lehigh Northwest Cement Co. paying for school crossing guards. Lehigh has overseen activity in the gravel pit straddling Metchosin Road in Royal Bay, which was reclassified last year from industrial to residential/commercial.
"It was required by the city to start funding school crossing guards, especially along Metchosin Road, because of the construction traffic going back and forth," said Shaun Wysiecki, Colwood's acting mayor.
"But once they stopped the operations, we were then, of course, left with an ongoing charge every year that had to be passed on to our citizens."
A funding request of $26,000 for crossing guards was looked at as part of Colwood's 2009 budget, but the municipality is having to make some tough financial decisions and did not support the request.
"So we're still obviously actively looking to find a solution to this," Wysiecki said. "We are looking now at continuing to provide school crossing guards through some alternative means if possible, such as maybe going back to a volunteer program.
"The program for school crossing guards in the city traditionally was always done through volunteers."
The school district or the Ministry of Education could be possible sources for funding, he said.
Sooke board of education chairwoman Wendy Hobbs said the district doesn't have the money to fund crossing guards.
"Basically, it's not the board's mandate to provide crossing guards. We haven't paid for it for quite a few years now, the municipalities have paid for it."
She said Langford, part of the Sooke school district, funds crossing guards through its development-cost charges.
Hobbs said she doesn't know of any school districts that pay for crossing-guard service.
Joanne Arnold, a member of the parent-advisory council at David Cameron Elementary School, said there are some major roads near Colwood schools, including Veterans Memorial Parkway next to David Cameron and Sooke Road near Colwood Elementary School.
News of the situation with the crossing-guard program is just getting out to parents, she said.
"We actually don't really have a plan yet."
She said she is hopeful a solution will be found by September.
