With just days to go before school starts, the Greater Victoria School District says it’s working out agreements with municipalities to ensure crossing guards are in place for the first day of classes on Tuesday.
“The Board is seeking to reach a funding agreement with municipalities, who have a responsibility to manage and maintain municipal roads,” board chair Ryan Painter in an email.
After several years of uncertainty for the regional crossing-guard program, the district is taking over administrative costs and management, and Painter said it’s optimistic about a long-term funding solution.
“In the interim and if funding timelines cannot be immediately agreed upon with local municipalities, the District has a short-term contingency plan in place for the start of the school year.
“We have done this in anticipation that 100 per cent of crossing guard funding will continue from municipalities, as it has for the past 20 years.”
The future of the Greater Victoria Crossing Guard Association has been uncertain since it formed four years ago as an interim solution when Beacon Community Services stepped down from crossing-guard management.
In July, the association dissolved, and both Victoria and Saanich councils asked the school district to take over.
In the past, the crossing-guard program was funded through municipal grants, which at times fell short, creating uncertainty for the program’s future. In 2021, the association had to seek out an additional $50,000 to cover expenses after the city changed its funding.
The City of Victoria has committed $62,000 in stable funding to the program, which will be adjusted with inflation. The District of Saanich provides crossing-guard funding to all the school districts with schools within its borders, and said that it is in conversation with the Greater Victoria School District to determine a new funding model.
Long-term funding agreements with other municipalities that are home to Greater Victoria School District schools — Esquimalt, Oak Bay and View Royal — are still being negotiated.
