School officials are trying to cope with a shortage of people to help children cross the street.
AUBURN – Principal Dick Brouillette never knows whether he’ll have enough crossing guards to get his students to and from school.
If a guard calls in sick, a free Auburn police officer might take over a corner. Or a teacher might grab the school’s stop sign and go out.
But once in a while, no one is there to do the job. His Webster Intermediate School fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders then have to risk the traffic on their own.
“There are no subs,” Brouillette said.
The school system needs to nearly triple its pool of substitute crossing guards. But it seems that no one wants the job.
“It’s becoming an issue,” said Business Manager Jude Cyr.
Lewiston schools aren’t faring much better.
In that city, the police department has nine crossing guards and would like one more. It has no substitutes.
“I’d be thrilled with one,” said Sgt. Jim Rioux, who oversees the crossing guards for the Lewiston Police Department.
But knowing the problem Auburn has had, he is not optimistic.
In Lewiston and Auburn, many elementary students walk to neighborhood schools, crossing busy streets during morning rush hour. After school they race home, sometimes oblivious to oncoming cars.
Auburn has 13 crossing guards who spend one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon watching kids. It needs one more. It has four substitutes and needs at least another 10.
Auburn officials advertised their open positions in the newspaper. They posted banners about the jobs on a school bus parked on Court Street and outside Auburn Middle School. Officials sent fliers to the Auburn Housing Authority, hoping to entice retired residents to become crossing guards. Schools also have publicized the openings in newsletters to parents.
But so far, few people have applied.
“It’s just kind of an impossible situation,” Brouillette said.
‘It’s getting hard’
Auburn has faced crossing guard shortages in the past, Cyr said, but this year is one of the worst. Officials said they don’t know if the problem is the pay, the time commitment or the weather.
In Lewiston, Rioux thinks he knows.
“The job is not a full-time job. The hours are really messed up,” he said. “You don’t find a whole lot of people willing to use their whole day.”
Lewiston guards work about three hours a day split between morning and afternoon. They earn about $80 a week.
To help with the shortage, both Lewiston and Auburn police departments send officers to fill in.
But in Auburn, where the shortage is worse, police officials don’t have enough officers to cover every street that needs a guard. And when an emergency comes up, the officers have to leave.
At some Auburn schools, resource officers, teachers and principals have donned the orange crossing guard vests for a day or two. At Webster Intermediate, some parents have volunteered to take over.
Officials said they are grateful to the police and the volunteers. But they hope the positions will fill soon.
“At any given time, with people having illnesses, it’s getting hard,” Cyr said.
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