Santa Ana to Develop Volunteer Program After Clash With School District Over Crossing Guard Funding

The City of Santa Ana opted to replace its current school crossing guard program with a volunteer system after the city clashed with the Santa Ana Unified School District over which entity should pay for the service for school children.

Faced with a decision to renew its $7.7 million crossing guard program for the next five years, councilors instead voted 5–2 to develop a volunteer program—with Councilors Jessie Lopez and Benjamin Vasquez dissenting.

The current program provides 55 crossing guards for 40 elementary schools in the Tustin, Santa Ana, and Garden Grove unified school districts.

The volunteer program will extend to the district’s eight elementary charter schools and put individual schools and school districts in charge of overseeing their own campuses.

The city’s police department and public works agency will also partner with the city by providing training for volunteers.

The current program will phase out by the beginning of the 2023–24 school year, according to city officials, who said the new program will take a while to develop and that it’s unclear when it will be ready.

In the meantime, the city approved a new $5.3 million contract for crossing guards for up to five years at the suggestion of Councilman Ryan Hernandez.

Though he ultimately voted to approve the volunteer program, Hernandez urged the council to fund the highest level of safety professionals.

“Although I don’t agree with Santa Ana Unified not footing the bill, I want to urge my colleagues that we were elected by residents whose families attend these school districts,” he said. “Let us be the leaders these children deserve. We wouldn’t want volunteer cops, why would we want volunteer crossing guards? We should pay for the highest level of service that our children and families deserve.”

Lopez said she hoped the program would engage residents and retirees to get involved in the local community.

“There’s a lot of people that are retired, that want to get involved, that want to help in some capacity, in some way, and I think this is going to be a good opportunity for them to do so,” she said during the meeting.

However, she ultimately voted against the volunteer program because, she said, she thought it shouldn’t extend to cover charter schools.

Vazquez also voted against the volunteer program, noting that part of the city’s municipal code pledged to provide school crossing guards.

“We told the kids we’d get them to school safely and taken back home safely,” Vasquez said. “That is our job. It’s our jurisdiction.”

Councilors delayed a decision to renew the program last month, arguing that Santa Ana Unified should cover or, at least, split the cost of the program with the city.

All Santa Ana Unified trustees were not immediately available for comment.