All Vacant School Crossing Guard Spots To Be Filled By Fall, Windsor Terrace Councilman Says

WINDSOR TERRACE, BROOKLYN — All of the city's vacant school crossing guard positions will be filled by the fall, Windsor Terrace Councilman Brad Lander said Tuesday.

The $85 billion draft budget released Tuesday by Mayor Bill de Blasio includes $6.3 million for 200 new school crossing guards and 100 school crossing guard supervisors.

In a blog post, Lander wrote that, "The NYPD plans to hire these new School Crossing Guards by June 2017 to be deployed by the fall, which will mark the first time that all of NYC’s vacant School Crossing Guard Posts will be covered."

"The NYPD’s newly established Supervisor position will provide School Crossing Guards with a pathway for advancement and increased wages in their field," Lander continued. "These Supervisors will also support the NYPD’s efforts to improve how it deploys School Crossing Guards and covers vacant posts – a challenge that NYPD police precincts face on a daily basis."

The councilman also said he hopes "that with these increased funds, the NYPD will soon implement a more objective process for identifying new intersections in need of School Crossing Guards in partnership with NYC Department of Transportation and the NYC Department of Education, to ensure dangerous intersections near schools do not go ignored."

Last year, parents of students attending P.S. 130 in Windsor Terrace started pushing for a permanent crossing guard to be assigned to the intersection of Caton Avenue and Ocean Parkway, which they said is dangerous due to area traffic.

In October, P.S. 130 parent Nate Gray said that while a temporary traffic control agent had been assigned to the corner, a permanent crossing guard was still needed there.

The corner is near the intersection of E. 7th Street and Caton Avenue, where 14-year-old Mohammad Uddin, a student at Brooklyn Technical High School, was struck by a car and killed in November 2014.

Top photo courtesy of mario on Flickr