Edison crossing guards remain understaffed: 'You can't put a price on our kids’ lives'

EDISON – School crossing guards will remain employed by the township, at least for now, as plans to privatize the service remain on hold.

And several residents expressed support to the Township Council for keeping the crossing guards in-house.

During Wednesday's meeting, a resolution aimed at hiring Crossing Guard Services of Stamford, Connecticut, under a $900,000 contract for the next three years was pulled from the agenda.

The same resolution was tabled late last month just before the start of the new school year, following questions by councilmembers and residents. As a result, the school year started last week with police officers and crossing guards retained by the department manning school posts.

No discussion was held Wednesday for why the resolution was pulled.

Edison has been looking to privatize crossing guards due to long-standing staffing shortages that often required police officers to cover those assignments at a significant cost to taxpayers.

The township has 40 crossing guards for 53 posts. There is one unfilled post and 12 guards performing a double post, according to township officials.

Edison spends about $600,000 a year for crossing guards' salaries and about $200,000 for the police officers who fill in on posts.

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Resident Russell Azzarello said he supports the crossing guards, some of whom attended the meeting, and would like to see their jobs remain in town.

"You can't put a price on safety. You can't put a price on our kids’ lives," said Azzarello, adding his four sons all knew their crossing guard and questioned why the township would want to have strangers as crossing guards.

He suggested offering a signing bonus and pay raises to help retain in-house school crossing guards.

"If none of the councilmembers or myself or anybody here would take this job part-time, why would we expect anyone else to take this job?" Azzarello asked. "I like the jobs in-house. I like the fact they report to the Edison Police Department, and I like the fact that they do a background check. How do we know another company is going to do the job right? I encourage the councilmembers to vote against outsourcing the crossing guards."

Another resident suggested the crossing guards deserve more money. Currently Edison school crossing guards are paid $19 an hour and suggested the rate should be $25 an hour or more.

Business Administrator Sonia Alves-Viveiros has said the company the township was looking to hire was considering offering higher pay rates. The company also planned to provide guards with jackets, gloves, hats, stop sign, reflective vests, raincoats, whistles, badges and background checks. Under the contract all the current crossing guards would be offered their same positions.

Resident Elizabeth Conway said the crossing guards are part of the town and it's a security item to keep them in-house.

"To talk about privatization, you would lose power over the employees you hire," she said, adding that by twice tabling the resolution the crossing guards remain in limbo.

She recommended the council quickly decide not to outsource the crossing guards and find incentives to hire and keep them.

Resident Nick Fagan also echoed the need to keep crossing guards employed by the township, and not an outside agency.

"I'm supportive of having our police being crossing guards, out there in the mornings, in the community with our kids. I think that's a great thing," Fagan said.

Email: srussell@gannettnj.com

Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com covering crime, courts and other mayhem. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Edison Township NJ crossing guards remain understaffed