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Trustees want city to buck up for crossing guard at Ladner Elementary

The Delta School District is hoping to have crossings guards for Ladner Elementary.
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A request for crossing guards at Ladner Elementary will be reviewed.

The Delta School District is hoping to have crossings guards for Ladner Elementary.

The board of education on Tuesday endorsed a recommendation to request the city increase the number of school crosswalks attended by adult crossing guards by adding a morning and afternoon guard at the 44th Avenue school.

It would increase the total number of school crosswalks with the service to 26, while also increasing the total budget for the program, paid entirely by the City of Delta, to $107,441 for the next school year. The request will be reviewed by a city technical committee.

Last summer, parents voiced safety concerns about speeding vehicles near the school.

Jennifer O'Sullivan, who represented an informal group of parents and neighbours, had written to the provincial Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure seeking answers and safety measures in the area.

O’Sullivan said she and other neighbours had written to the city on multiple occasions in an effort to slow traffic, but had been told that money is not in the city’s budget.

“We have had the volunteer community policing come and do speed and radar checks where each and every check conducted over the years found that the majority of drivers do not obey the speed limit and, in fact, use excessive speed on the road at all times of the day,” O'Sullivan said in an interview.

The school board in 2017 requested additional adult crossing guards at several sites, including Ladner Elementary. A technical review was conducted but determined additional crossing guards were not warranted, according to a city engineering report at that time.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the school crossing guard program, a deal between the district and city.

In the spring of 1999, parents rallied against the school board’s decision to cut the district’s crossing guard program due to a $1.7-million budget shortfall. The crossing guard portion of the budget at the time was $107,000.

A Delta council meeting that spring saw a large number of irate parents show up asking for the municipality to pick up the tab for the safety of their children. A deal was then struck between Delta and the school board that saw the municipality pick up that cost in exchange for Delta receiving enhanced use of school playing fields. The municipality would also provide a higher level of maintenance to some of the school fields to allow for increased usage and bring them up to municipal standards.

The deal saw Delta assume funding beginning in the fall of 1999 and the annual cost since then has been in the $100,000 range. Delta’s engineering department reviews sites on an annual basis and makes adjustments depending on traffic and other factors.