District looks to handle changing of the guard

Crossing guard programs have traditionally been a joint school-police venture.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

SHARON, Pa. — When the city announced that financial problems would prevent it from helping provide crossing guards for the Sharon City School District, the district was faced with a dilemma.

The tab for the guards was running about $200,000 a year, and the city, which actually employed the part-time guards, and the school district shared the cost.

The city announced last spring that, starting this fall, it would no longer participate in the program, which was paying guards upward of $10 an hour and providing them with a prescription drug insurance plan.

That left the district facing the program expense on its own, prompting school officials to look for a different way to ensure pupil safety at the 15 guarded street crossings in the city.

Superintendent John Sarandrea said Sharon put out a request for proposals to provide the guard services and chose to hire a private company, Morris Security Specialists LLC of Liberty Township, to handle the job.

The cost is $82,832 for a one-year contract covering 180 school days.

Crossing guard duties in Pennsylvania are, by tradition and policy, a function shared by school districts and their local police departments, said Scott Shewell of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.

“Those are community-level decisions,” he said, explaining the state doesn’t govern the matter.

The PSBA doesn’t track that particular data, but Shewell said he is unaware of any other Pennsylvania school districts turning the job over to a private company.

Likewise, Jeff Chambers of the Ohio School Boards Association, said he hasn’t heard of anyone in Ohio doing it either.

“We realize this is new ground for the school district,” Sarandrea said, adding that he isn’t aware of any other district doing it. Sharon may be the first in the state, he said.

It’s also something new for Morris Security, said Steven Liller, director of security for the company.

About the company

Morris is a traditional security company, handling things like background checks, electronic fingerprinting and placing security guards, he said, noting that moving into the school crossing guard market is a new venture.

The company was looking to expand into Pennsylvania when it learned that Sharon was looking for a private company to handle its crossing guard program.

Morris saw it as an opportunity to help the district reduce its cost and get some good advertising in the process, Liller said.

If it works out, the company will begin marketing the service to other schools, including those in Ohio, he said, noting that Morris has already received a call from another Pennsylvania school district inquiring about its services.

School opened Aug. 29 in Sharon and, so far, there have been no problems or complaints, both Sarandrea and Liller said.

Sharon children and parents accustomed to seeing certain guards at specific crossings probably haven’t noticed a difference.

Morris hired 12 of the 14 previous guards, and, aside from now wearing a white shirt with the company logo and a company identification badge, their duties haven’t changed.

“These guys know the kids, they know the parents,” Liller said, stressing that the safety of the children is paramount so keeping as much of the existing force as possible was very important to the company.

The guards who stayed took a bit of a pay cut. They lost their prescription plan and get paid a flat rate of $23 a day for about two and one-half hours’ work.

That’s not a problem, said Wade Vogan of Sharon, a General American Transportation Corp. retiree who has been a crossing guard in the city for six years.

It’s not for the money

“We’re doing it for the kids, not the money,” he said, as he ushered a couple of late arrivals to school across State Street at Case Avenue on a recent morning.

“Hurry up; you’ve got two minutes,” he said to one young man, glancing at his watch.

The rewards come in the form of Christmas cookies and an occasional T-shirt from the Case Avenue Elementary reading program, he said.

“I enjoy the kids,” said Bob Martell of Sharon, also in his sixth year as a guard, working the crossing at State and South Meyers Avenue in front of the high school.

He said he has no complaints about working for Morris Security.

“It’s not bad for me. They’ve been nice to me,” he said.

John Hepler of Sharon, a retired GM Lordstown employee, said he took a job as a crossing guard in 1999 as a way to get out and to meet the kids. It’s for the camaraderie, he said, as he waved to a passing motorist at his State and Oakland Avenue crossing.

Hepler said he doesn’t understand whey the city and school district decided to farm out the guard program to a private company, but he’s willing to give Morris a chance.

Sarandrea said he is hopeful that the city will still be willing to pick up half of the crossing guard expense, although Mayor Bob Lucas said he no longer has any money set aside in the budget for that purpose.

Still, if city council decides to again participate, Lucas said he will have to find the money to do so.

gwin@vindy.com