TOWN COUNCIL MEETING OPENING REMARKS: SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

BACK TO SCHOOL

We have a relatively light agenda tonight. Before we get started, I want to wish all of our students a safe and successful school year! Councilman Dardia, as Chair of the Public Safety, Transportation, and Parking Committee, will talk briefly about our crossing guard program.

Remarks by Councilman Dardia:
Thank you, Mayor. Late last week, Dr. Gonzalez included information from the Town about this year’s crossing guard program in his back-to-school email that went out to families district-wide. This information is also on our website and includes a list of this year’s posts, as well as important context about the utilization of All City Management Services to oversee the crossing guard program.

The Town’s partnership with ACMS provides dedicated support and expertise to our crossing guards, some of whom have been serving the school children in our community for decades. It also represents a much better use of taxpayer dollars and an enhancement to public safety by freeing up our police officers to prioritize law enforcement and emergency response, rather than consistently serving as crossing guards and overseeing recruiting and retention efforts for the program. In fact, it was the Westfield Police Department that initially recommended this model and continues to support it, after years of their public safety resources being diluted by the ongoing need to manage the program and fill increasingly vacant posts. It is an approach that is widely used by multiple communities spanning 25 states – including nearby municipalities such as Millburn, Scotch Plains, and Ridgewood. Simply put, this is not unusual or unique to Westfield. 

Some residents may not be aware that ACMS’ program is actually managed locally by two supervisors here in Westfield who oversee the crossing guard program on a daily basis – from staffing, to covering posts, to ongoing communication with the Police Department as needed. As part of the recent contract renewal, and in an effort to improve guard retention, our guards are receiving an hourly wage increase, as well as three guaranteed paid snow days for the school year. This will help ACMS achieve the consistency at posts that both they and the Town desire. In fact, we were informed late last week by ACMS that their current recruiting efforts have yielded what they anticipate to be full staffing of the current posts as the school year begins. 

There have been some questions from residents about the need to reduce posts and how those decisions were made, so I’d like to provide some details. As we’ve seen nationwide, labor shortages continue to be an issue, which has impacted the fulfillment of posts. A quick look at advertisements for crossing guards online shows that communities across the country are facing the same challenges. In order for ACMS to sustain staffing levels without daily reliance upon our police officers, the Public Safety Committee, comprised of myself and Councilpersons Emily Root, Linda Habgood, and Mark LoGrippo, in its June meeting made the unanimous decision to keep the number of posts at 32 – which is where we ended the 2021-2022 school year. Every member of this bipartisan committee agreed upon this number.

In terms of how the posts were chosen, the committee focused on crossing assistance at intersections with the highest pedestrian volume, which are typically those closest to the schools, and at those located on state and county roads, which tend to have more traffic. Ultimately, we have 35 posts in total – three more than last year – in order to include posts on county roads at Central & Sycamore, Central & Cambridge, and Mountain & Kimball. The expectation with 35 posts is that staffing fulfillment levels will be greatly improved so that police can focus on law enforcement and public safety during the busiest times on our roads – school drop off and pick up.  

In addition, to enhance public safety, the post at Westfield High School at Rahway and Dorian will now be staffed by a police officer, who has the authority to direct traffic at this heavily traveled intersection and enforce the no left turn from Dorian put in place in 2020 to help mitigate congestion in that area.

We remain committed to public safety above all else. As we progress through what is anticipated to be the first school year with regular in-school attendance since ACMS was hired, the Town will continue to work with ACMS to gather data and feedback to optimize its crossing guard services and make any adjustments necessary to best serve the community. 

As always we are grateful for our dedicated team of crossing guards and would like to thank them for their service to our town and our children. We wish them and our students a happy and healthy school year. 

With that, let's get to work.
Thank you.