Calabasas Schools Struggle To Find Crossing Guards

Calabasas CA

25 August, 2021

5:53 PM

Description

CALABASAS, CA — Add crossing the street to the list of challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic: Calabasas schools started off the year short of crossing guards at three locations. As schools across the country return to in-person instruction for the 2021-'22 school year, the pandemic continued to bring staffing and administrative challenges. Calabasas is no exception, as the Los Virgenes Unified School District struggles to find crossing guards for many of its locations. All City Management Services, the company that handles Calabasas' crossing guard hiring, started having issues finding crossing guards last March when many public schools returned to in-person instruction, California Regional Manager Kelly Hudson said. The city is currently looking for crossing guards at three intersections: Eddingham Avenue and Mulholland Highway, Adamore Road and Parkmore Road, and Lost Hills Road and Cold Springs Road. Multiple factors contributed to the difficulty finding crossing guards, Hudson and City of Calabasas Public Works Director Robert Yalda said. A key issue is the California requirement that individuals prove they are looking for work to receive unemployment benefits, which was waived until July for the pandemic. Hudson suspected that this requirement has led to many uninterested applicants; she hires only one in three employees for every 20 interviews, far lower than usual. Safety concerns because of the recent surge of the delta variant have also made hiring difficult, especially considering crossing guards are often retired and older, Yalda and Hudson said. Calabasas schools are not alone in their struggle to lock down crossing guards. Schools across the country are desperately trying to fill crossing guard positions as the school year begins. School districts in Kentucky, Utah, Florida, Vermont, Washington, California and more are understaffed with crossing guards for reasons related to the pandemic. Crossing guard jobs can be really fulfilling, so it hurts to see areas not get full coverage, Hudson said. She and the City of Calabasas are working to find crossing guards quickly. All City Management Services even went so far as to offer its own supervisors in the event no crossing guards can be found for the locations in need, Yalda said. "It's a rewarding job, and we're looking for good people with integrity who really want to do the work," Hudson said. She added: "People who realize that the city, the police department, the school district [and] all the families are counting on them. It's purposeful work." To apply for a position as a crossing guard, visit the All City Management Services site.