St. George to remove midday kindergarten crossing guards and reduced speed school zones

ST. GEORGE — Earlier this week the St. George Police Department announced it was doing away with midday kindergarten crossing guards and reduced speed school zones.

St. George Police Sgt. Tyrell Bangerter speaking to the pending removal of midday crossing guards, St. George, Utah, Dec. 9, 2021 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News

The change is set to go into effect Jan. 1 and follows seven of the elementary schools within St. George moving to an all-day kindergarten schedule.

While the six other schools remain on a morning and afternoon kindergarten schedule, there aren’t enough kindergarten-age students using the crosswalk at midday to justify keeping a crossing guard and enforcing a reduced speed school zones there, St. George Police Sgt. Tyrell Bangerter said.

“Historically, we haven’t had a lot of people, a lot of kids crossing,” Bangerter said. “Kindergarten kids are about 5 years old, and most parents aren’t able to send their kids by themselves.

“We understand that there are situations where a parent has to send a child by themselves. We’re sensitive to that, and we’re trying to work with those parents where there is an actual need to get the kid to school without a parent. But most of the parents are driving their child or walking their child to the school.”

The pending removal of the midday crossing guards and reduced speed school zones was announced over social media last Monday when Bangerter released a video outlining the changes and why they were happening.

Somewhere along the way, however, there was a misunderstanding among some of the public that this meant the police department, which employees the crossing guards, was eliminating all of these kindergarten crossing guards.

That isn’t the case at all, Bangerter said.

“Bottom line, people just aren’t thinking about the whole thing,” he said. “They hear we’ve eliminated crossing guards for children and you think, ‘Oh my gosh, how are these kids going to get across the street safely?’ … And again, we’re going to look into that to see what we need to do. But it’s not that we’re just taking it away and saying, ‘Hey, best of luck, son, I hope you make it across to the school.’”

Traffic cones mark the location of the school crosswalk by Little Valley Elementary for driver who pay attention enough to notice them, St. George News, Nov. 10, 2021 | Photo by St. George News

Prior to the announcement, the Police Department had the crossing guards keep track of how many kindergarten-age students used the crosswalk midday across the 13 elementary schools in St. George during a week in September.

None of the all-day kindergarten schools had any midday crosswalk use, while the other schools, at the most, had five children use the crosswalk during that time. That is half of the number required by the state that have a crossing guard present, Bangerter said.

Overall, when the survey of midday crosswalk use was completed and tallied, it equated to one child per day per school, Bangerter said.

Moreover, the Police Department doesn’t have the luxury of determining when and where a crosswalk, crossing guard or reduced speed school zone is implemented. Those determinations are made through the Utah Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices. In a process similar to what can determine the placement of traffic signals, certain criteria, or warrants, must be met in order to justify the creation of a crosswalk, as well as the need for placement of a crossing guard at that crosswalk.

“We don’t do that study,” Bangerter added. “Our engineering department actually does that traffic study where they go out to a set location. They do the traffic counts for the number of vehicles for the number of people that are crossing through, measure the speeds. There’s a lot of different factors that go into that.”

Crossing guard Debbie White at the crosswalk by Panorama Elementary School in St. George, Utah, Oct. 11, 2021 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News

Bangerter stated further that, in Utah, an elementary school can’t have a reduced speed school zone unless a crossing guard is staffing the area as well. This is why reduced speed school zones are also being eliminated along with the crossing guards for midday.

While there is also a funding component related to this situation, Bangerter said it is by no means the deciding factor in this case. Though the Police Department wants to be a good steward of taxpayer money, the safety of the children will always come first, he said.

To better gauge how removing the midday crossing guards will affect families with kindergarten-age children, a survey was sent to their homes asking how the change may impact them. So far, Bangerter said he had received 120 responses with the majority replying that it will not impact much, if at all.

However, at least one family responded with details of how the loss of the crossing guards would be a detriment. In this case, the Police Department is looking at how that family can be accommodated, Bangerter said.

For families of kindergarten-age children in St. George who have not received the survey, Bangerter said they can contact him directly at 435-627-4386.

The St. George Police Department will continue to work on getting the word out about the pending change and has thus far posted information across various social media platforms.

Bangerter will also be at the next Washington County School Board meeting set for Dec. 14 at 4:30 p.m. to answer any questions about the pending crossing guard changes.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.

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