City to pay $206K for crossing guards for upcoming school year

The city of Frederick have agreed to pay a contractor $206,060 for crossing guards at 13 locations near city schools in the 2024-25 school year.

There were 11 locations in the city staffed by crossing guards in the 2023-24 school year.

Since 2017, the city and Frederick County have jointly contracted with All City Management Services of California, a company that provides crossing guard services across the country.

"Areas with a lot of complaints or high traffic volume" need crossing guards to maintain student safety, Lt. John Corbett of Frederick police said in an interview.

The new locations for the upcoming school year are the intersections of Madison Avenue and Center Street, near Lincoln Elementary School, and Opossumtown Pike and Christophers Crossing, near Monocacy Elementary and Middle schools.

The existing crossing guard locations include:

* Hillcrest Drive and Riggs Court (Hillcrest Elementary School)

* Fairview Avenue at North Frederick Elementary School

* Motter Avenue and 9th Street (North Frederick Elementary School)

* Madison Street at Lincoln Elementary School

* Wetherburne Way at Whittier Elementary School

* North Market Street and 15th Street (Gov. Thomas Johnson High School)

* North Market Street and North East Street (Gov. Thomas Johnson Middle School)

* Waverley Drive and Bicton Commons Drive (Waverley Elementary School)

* Waverley Drive and Key Parkway (Waverley Elementary School)

* Hillcrest Drive and McCain Drive (Butterfly Ridge Elementary School)

* McCain Drive and Butterfly Lane (Butterfly Ridge Elementary School)

This program was already approved in the budget.

The Board of Aldermen approved the contract in a 4-1 vote on Thursday, with Alderwoman Donna Kuzemchak as the lone dissenting vote.

The aldermen questioned Corbett, who presented the program to the board during Thursday's meeting, on the matter of crossing guard payment and contingency staffing.

In the event that the crossing guard company could not staff the position on a given day, a school resource officer or patrol officer would fill in for them, Corbett said.

There have not, however, been any such cases since the city began contracting with All City Management Services, he said.

Kuzemchak was concerned that uneven payment in city and county positions would lead to crossing guards leaving positions in the city for better paid opportunities in the county.

The city agreed to pay All City Management Services at a rate of $28.86 per hour per guard, compared to $26.99 for 2023-24.

"I'll support it to get folks into place before school starts, but I do think as a process if we're going to piggyback off the county's contract it's always gonna be a sensitivity to make sure we're having parity with the folks that we're offering," Alderwoman Katie Nash said.

David Mecusker of All City Management Services said in an interview on Monday that crossing guards in both Frederick city and Frederick County will be paid $18 an hour for the 2024-25 school year. This is a $1 increase from the $17 that the crossing guards in both jurisdictions earned at the end of the 2023-24 school year.

Parity between city and county compensation, however, was not there at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year.

In the fall of 2023, crossing guards in the county made $1 more per hour than crossing guards in the city. This was also the case in the 2022-23 school year.

In the middle of the 2023-24 school year, an operations manager at All City Management Services noticed the discrepancy and the company matched the pay for city crossing guards with the pay for county crossing guards, Mecusker said.

Aldermen Kelly Russell and Ben MacShane, as well as Corbett, said there have not been documented cases of guards leaving the city positions for better paid positions elsewhere.

With the contract approved, the crossing guard program is set to proceed at all 13 locations when schools open this month.