Victoria Coun. Ben Isitt is calling for up to $50,000 in emergency funding to keep the city’s crossing-guard program going for the rest of the school year.
The proposal will be considered at a special council meeting on Thursday.
Isitt said crossing guards are “an essential service for the safety and well-being of children and other members of the school communities.”
Last week, the group that organizes school crossing guards in the city alerted council that it only has enough funding to cover all of the crossing guards currently working at city schools until this Friday.
Audrey Smith, an executive member with the Greater Victoria Crossing Guard Association, said the annual grant from the city to pay for crossing guards is typically about $62,000.
That covers the cost of guards before and after classes at five schools, and includes two guards at Quadra Elementary at the Quadra Street/Finlayson Street intersection, and two at Oaklands Elementary — one at Shelbourne Street and one at Hillside Avenue.
It also pays for crossing guards at Sir James Douglas, Margaret Jenkins and South Park elementaries.
Guards typically make minimum wage — $15.20 an hour.
Smith, who has been with the association since 2018, said the funding crisis arose after the city decided the money was coming from the wrong place — a strategic-plan grant from the city — and the grant was larger than other typical grants from that source.
For the most recent grant, which covers the current school year and was distributed in June, the amount was dropped to $21,490 of the $62,000 requested, Smith said. “So a little over a third of what we needed. … I then asked the city which intersections do you want us to man? This is enough for three intersections.”
Smith said she first sent out letters outlining the problem in August.
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said council received a letter from the association last week about its concerns, and will discuss the $50,000 funding proposal at Thursday’s meeting.
“Hopefully, council supports it,” Helps said.
“Crossing guards are important, they’re really important to get kids to and from school safely and they’re also important to make sure that kids can walk to school, which is a really good health benefit.
Helps said council can look to provide “permanent, sustainable funding” for the program in its next budget. Crossing guards are already a line item in the budgets of Saanich and Oak Bay.
