D.C. Council members are worried that a Fenty administration plan to eliminate more than 20 school crossing guard slots will put children at risk, especially as more schools are closed and kids are forced to walk longer distances.
“Each year we seem to have children hit by cars,” Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells said during a hearing this week on the Department of Transportation’s proposed fiscal 2010 budget. “And as we closed more than 23 schools [last year], we’re requiring children to walk much farther to their school.”
DDOT intends to eliminate 98 jobs overall, including 73 filled positions — part of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s proposal to slash 1,600 jobs from the government payroll and $800 million from the city’s 2010 budget. More than 60 percent of the DDOT employees slated to lose their jobs earn more than $60,000 a year, Director Gabe Klein told a council panel Monday. “It’s definitely skewed toward the higher end,” he said.
The lower-paying crossing guard vacancies, however, were among the first to go. Absenteeism among the agency’s 200-plus guards is high, Klein said, and “people come and go very quickly.” DDOT also plans in 2010 to cut guards’ shifts from four to three hours, saving $527,000 but making the job even less attractive to potential applicants.
DDOT is seeking a contingent of volunteer crossing guards who could be called in when a paid guard doesn’t show, said John Lisle, DDOT spokesman. But the agency, he said, does not “want anyone to think this is a substitute for the school crossing guards we have.”
The city needs more guards, Wells contended, to handle a bevy of dangerous crossings that are new to children. He specifically cited Third and M streets SW. Children who once attended Bowen Elementary School at 101 M St. SW now must hustle through that busy intersection to reach their new school, Amidon Elementary at 401 I St. SW. Streetlights, Wells said, “really are not enough.”
Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham, who has oversight of DDOT, said Wednesday that he will try to restore the 21 positions and the four-hour shifts.
“This artfully constructed jigsaw puzzle of a budget that the mayor gave us,” Graham said, “you take out one piece you got to plug it.”
