. Teachers/principals cannot be expected to take on this task in addition to their other duties at the same time. Why isn’t anyone asking OPD to “volunteer”??? this aligns much more with their training…
• City of Orange has to make cuts to balance their budget, why are you leaving kids out of your public safety analysis?
• Because OUSD has been prudent with our funds and dealt with pension funding in a timely manner, doesn’t mean we owe the city of Orange to help them out of their budgetary crisis to the financial and educational detriment of all OUSD students.
Our children’s safety should be put first. Please include school crossing guards in the budget. Living near Linda Vista we see the difference this year without the crossing guard.
Please find a corporate sponsor for treats in the streets - this is a great opportunity for a business such as Ricci Realty to give back to the community. Kudos to Toyota of Orange for supporting Concerts in the Park.
Good Evening Mayor Slater, Council Members, staff, and community stakeholders. I am a homeowner in Orange and a teacher at El Modena High School. I am very concerned that the City of Orange has eliminated crossing guards. While our students at El Modena are bigger, they benefit from the crossing-guard typically stationed on Spring Street, which can otherwise be a racetrack for drivers seeking to avoid signals on Chapman or the stop signs on Walnut and Bond. We have had serious accidents on Spring Street in recent years. Across the city, schools are similarly situated on through-streets and I can not understand how why city ignoring the dangerous situations created by the decision to eliminate city-funded crossing guards. It is equally absurd to pass the responsibility to control these crossings on city property to volunteers or the school district. I support solving the city's budget crisis, but please do not do it at the expense of our school children and their safety.
Although our children have grown up and moved away, I would not like to live in a community that cannot control traffic around schools. OUSD is not equipped to handle this function. It's a public safety issue. The alternatives, traffic signals and speed bumps, are not going to happen. Please reverse this decision.
Prioritize Student/Community Safety
Dear City Council, Your decision to cut the crossing guard program is a very dangerous and low moment for our city. You have knowingly put the OUSD children and community at risk. Protecting children and the community is the bare minimum.
Our children should be a priority in the budget. Children walking to and from school should feel safe and not have to endanger their lives while other less important activities get funded by our city. I’m always so thankful to see our crossing guard at our school and it is disgraceful to cut them from the budget.
This is stupid. Why is this even a discussion? What needs to happen, a kid gets hit? So that you can afford to host a public event that is attended by families outside of the city. This is highly irresponsible, and needs to be corrected.
Now that school has started it has become really apparent that crossing guards are needed for the safety of students. Many Palmyra students have to cross TWO busy intersections to get to school. The intersection off is Tustin & Palmyra is especially dangerous. There are accidents often at this intersection. The safety of children needs to be put above city events and raises.
I’m an orange resident and ousd parent and it is outrageous that the city cut the school crossing guards but kept the ridiculous treats in the streets event. We don’t need that dumb event we need our kids to be safe going to school and it’s the city’s responsibility NOT OUSD’s to supply the crossing guards. I can’t let my two elementary school kids walk to school because you took away the guards. What is it going to take? A kid getting hit by a car and dying? I don’t want your thoughts and prayers, I want the city, that my tax dollars go to, to bring back the school crossing guards.
The city has been put in a difficult position of financing a city with not enough revenue and so you cut Public Safety and are playing with children's lives. No one thinks running a city with many opposing viewpoints would be easy, but I think the majority of people in this beautiful city of ours would agree that funding crossing guards is the bare minimum. I understand your donor money likely comes from people long without kids in the home, people who have owned their homes free and clear for years now, from people who get to sit back, rub their full bellies, and gleefully watch their housing appreciation while enjoying the Prop 13 benefits of low property taxes. But a city needs to be funded. And getting 400k yr in revenue from a city this big to protect children should be seen as a net gain for every single person. ~a taxpaying resident of Orange
Hello, City Council, I am a resident of Orange and a parent of a OUSD student. The crossing guard from the busy drop off in front of my child’s school has been removed leaving many parents left to navigate the exit of the school drop off and the cross walk without an extra set of eyes. In addition to witnessing the care taken by the crossing guard at my child’s school, I also witnessed the care taken by the crossing guard at Palmyra and Tustin. I take Tustin every morning to get to work and have seen how cars pass through the Palmyra and Tustin intersection, sometimes at speeds exceeding the speed limit. These are parents walking their K—5 aged kids across a very busy intersection that very much benefitted from having a crossing guard present to walk them and their kids across the intersection as they walked to Palmyra Elementary. As much as I enjoy the Treats in the Streets event, I would happily forgo one night of entertainment to ensure the safety of all kids in the OUSD school district by ensuring they have safe routes to school. Events are fun and can be funded by sponsors. When it comes to Safety and cutting budget with police funding, it’s a non-conversation, but when we’re talking about the safety of our kids walking to school, that’s an easy chop? Make it make sense. Thank you.
I can’t believe that you would even consider removing the crossing guards from the schools. You have now put the students and their parents and guardians in danger of being injured or killed by a driver. Reconsider your wrong decision and reinstate all the crossing guards.
Mayor Slater and City Council Members - The 2024/2025 school year has started in Orange Unified School District and with little or no notice to the School District or OUSD parents the City has decided to address the City's budget shortfalls by cancelling contracts for Elementary School crossing guards. Even though several of you may not be wholly responsible for creating the budget crisis the city is currently experiencing, if a child or uninsured parent is hit by an errant driver you certainly ALL will be remembered as the City Council who cut one of the most basic public safety measures, Crossing Guards. I suggest that you each spend a few mornings from 8am-9am out at a few of the local Elementary schools and see for yourselves how children, often unaccompanied, have to cross heavy traffic at Handy & Collins, La Veta between Laurinda and Yorba, Main & Palmyra, or Cambridge & Walnut, navigating rush hour and school drop off. This is unconscionable and I can only assume that this is a theatrical cut in order to force residents who may not already see the need to vote for some type of tax increase off of the fence. Using children's safety for this is not right.
If I understand correctly the funding for Crossing Guards in Orange comes from our Public Safety budget. As we're coming on to campaign season perhaps there can be a search held every morning, Monday through Friday, at all of the elementary schools in Orange for missing campaign signs as that seemed to draw four police cruisers, a much more efficient use of city tax funds and a turnout certain to result in safe intersections and perhaps some revenue through traffic citations.
I suggest tabling any discussion of Agenda Item 8.1 until AFTER a solution is found for the City's current budget crisis. Division heads will have to wait for their COLA. And not to be a Grinch, but tabling any discussion of funding for Treats In The Streets also until after the City has found a solution for the current budget crisis.
Every other district in Orange County doesn’t have to pay for the crossing guards
OUSD doesn’t get to decide the speed limit, crosswalk layout, painting, lighting, stopsign or signal installation, etc. Why would they monitor someone else’s area?
I am an OUSD parent and resident of the City of Orange. I understand that the city is facing a number of financial challenges right now but cutting crossing guards for our children does not seem like the right priority, especially when you are considering funding Treats in the Streets and raises for senior management. OUSD is not equipped to handle crossing guard work and it is standard practice for the city to handle this. The safety of school kids walking to school needs to be heavily considered in any analysis of public safety costs and cuts.
Crossing guards ensure the safety of children who cross the street at busy corners. Why would a city abandon a system that works? The crossing at prospect for Mc Phearson school is awful and requires crosswalk guards to stop cars that otherwise might fly through the streets. The same applies for La Vera elementary! Cars fly down the street and there's no traffic light or stop sign for kids to cross. Please prevent a terrible event and fund crossing guards. Everyone benefits.
I am a parent of a student in OUSD and a City of Orange resident. I oppose the decision made to end crossing guard services in the City of Orange, a vital city service provided to students and families in OUSD. All cities in the County of Orange provide this service, it would be a shame that we do not. OUSD does not have the ability to absorb this cost and does not have the liability insurance needed for this. If the proposed senior management raises were deferred, the crossing guard services could be maintained for a full year. A plan was not put in place before terminating all crossing guards. Please do not put kids and families at risk, please find a way to fund this vital city service. Thank you.
Please bring back the crossing guards for the safety of everyone in the City of Orange! It is vital to protect pedestrian traffic in school zones. Defer raises or cut treats in the streets to fund crossing guards.
City of Orange use common sense and do the right thing. Provide crossing guards for our children. Do not put this on OUSD because you have failed at keeping within your budgets.
I am writing not just as a parent of children who attend public schools in Orange, but as a someone who has lost two family members to a fatal accident in a crosswalk. A father and a daughter lost their lives that day, and I can personally attest to the devastating blow that this type of accident can cause to a family and a community.
We are a community of cousins, neighbors, aunts, uncles, parents, and families who want to thrive in Orange. Providing safe access to schools seems like it should be a high priority, and I was shocked when I realized that crossing guards were no longer being provided by the city. Many of the schools in Orange USD have small parking lots on campus, so even parents who drive our kids to school have to park and cross busy roads to get our students on campus.
These roads can be difficult to navigate, with little traffic oversight offered by Orange PD. Particularly at the start of the school year where drivers may have gotten used to speeding down the hill or running stop signs, our children face a significant safety risk. It is bad enough that the traffic laws are not enforced properly in school zones, but to double down by not providing crossing guards is an accident waiting to happen.
I hope that no one in our community has to endure the pain that my family experienced. Crossing guards can't protect from every possible risk, but they would have prevented the accident that resulted in my cousin and his daughter's lives being tragically cut short.
. Teachers/principals cannot be expected to take on this task in addition to their other duties at the same time. Why isn’t anyone asking OPD to “volunteer”??? this aligns much more with their training…
• City of Orange has to make cuts to balance their budget, why are you leaving kids out of your public safety analysis?
• Because OUSD has been prudent with our funds and dealt with pension funding in a timely manner, doesn’t mean we owe the city of Orange to help them out of their budgetary crisis to the financial and educational detriment of all OUSD students.
Our children’s safety should be put first. Please include school crossing guards in the budget. Living near Linda Vista we see the difference this year without the crossing guard.
Please find a corporate sponsor for treats in the streets - this is a great opportunity for a business such as Ricci Realty to give back to the community. Kudos to Toyota of Orange for supporting Concerts in the Park.
Good Evening Mayor Slater, Council Members, staff, and community stakeholders. I am a homeowner in Orange and a teacher at El Modena High School. I am very concerned that the City of Orange has eliminated crossing guards. While our students at El Modena are bigger, they benefit from the crossing-guard typically stationed on Spring Street, which can otherwise be a racetrack for drivers seeking to avoid signals on Chapman or the stop signs on Walnut and Bond. We have had serious accidents on Spring Street in recent years. Across the city, schools are similarly situated on through-streets and I can not understand how why city ignoring the dangerous situations created by the decision to eliminate city-funded crossing guards. It is equally absurd to pass the responsibility to control these crossings on city property to volunteers or the school district. I support solving the city's budget crisis, but please do not do it at the expense of our school children and their safety.
Sincerely,
Heather A. Chapman, Ph.D.
Although our children have grown up and moved away, I would not like to live in a community that cannot control traffic around schools. OUSD is not equipped to handle this function. It's a public safety issue. The alternatives, traffic signals and speed bumps, are not going to happen. Please reverse this decision.
Prioritize Student/Community Safety
Dear City Council, Your decision to cut the crossing guard program is a very dangerous and low moment for our city. You have knowingly put the OUSD children and community at risk. Protecting children and the community is the bare minimum.
Our children should be a priority in the budget. Children walking to and from school should feel safe and not have to endanger their lives while other less important activities get funded by our city. I’m always so thankful to see our crossing guard at our school and it is disgraceful to cut them from the budget.
This is stupid. Why is this even a discussion? What needs to happen, a kid gets hit? So that you can afford to host a public event that is attended by families outside of the city. This is highly irresponsible, and needs to be corrected.
Now that school has started it has become really apparent that crossing guards are needed for the safety of students. Many Palmyra students have to cross TWO busy intersections to get to school. The intersection off is Tustin & Palmyra is especially dangerous. There are accidents often at this intersection. The safety of children needs to be put above city events and raises.
I’m an orange resident and ousd parent and it is outrageous that the city cut the school crossing guards but kept the ridiculous treats in the streets event. We don’t need that dumb event we need our kids to be safe going to school and it’s the city’s responsibility NOT OUSD’s to supply the crossing guards. I can’t let my two elementary school kids walk to school because you took away the guards. What is it going to take? A kid getting hit by a car and dying? I don’t want your thoughts and prayers, I want the city, that my tax dollars go to, to bring back the school crossing guards.
The city has been put in a difficult position of financing a city with not enough revenue and so you cut Public Safety and are playing with children's lives. No one thinks running a city with many opposing viewpoints would be easy, but I think the majority of people in this beautiful city of ours would agree that funding crossing guards is the bare minimum. I understand your donor money likely comes from people long without kids in the home, people who have owned their homes free and clear for years now, from people who get to sit back, rub their full bellies, and gleefully watch their housing appreciation while enjoying the Prop 13 benefits of low property taxes. But a city needs to be funded. And getting 400k yr in revenue from a city this big to protect children should be seen as a net gain for every single person. ~a taxpaying resident of Orange
Hello, City Council, I am a resident of Orange and a parent of a OUSD student. The crossing guard from the busy drop off in front of my child’s school has been removed leaving many parents left to navigate the exit of the school drop off and the cross walk without an extra set of eyes. In addition to witnessing the care taken by the crossing guard at my child’s school, I also witnessed the care taken by the crossing guard at Palmyra and Tustin. I take Tustin every morning to get to work and have seen how cars pass through the Palmyra and Tustin intersection, sometimes at speeds exceeding the speed limit. These are parents walking their K—5 aged kids across a very busy intersection that very much benefitted from having a crossing guard present to walk them and their kids across the intersection as they walked to Palmyra Elementary. As much as I enjoy the Treats in the Streets event, I would happily forgo one night of entertainment to ensure the safety of all kids in the OUSD school district by ensuring they have safe routes to school. Events are fun and can be funded by sponsors. When it comes to Safety and cutting budget with police funding, it’s a non-conversation, but when we’re talking about the safety of our kids walking to school, that’s an easy chop? Make it make sense. Thank you.
I can’t believe that you would even consider removing the crossing guards from the schools. You have now put the students and their parents and guardians in danger of being injured or killed by a driver. Reconsider your wrong decision and reinstate all the crossing guards.
Mayor Slater and City Council Members - The 2024/2025 school year has started in Orange Unified School District and with little or no notice to the School District or OUSD parents the City has decided to address the City's budget shortfalls by cancelling contracts for Elementary School crossing guards. Even though several of you may not be wholly responsible for creating the budget crisis the city is currently experiencing, if a child or uninsured parent is hit by an errant driver you certainly ALL will be remembered as the City Council who cut one of the most basic public safety measures, Crossing Guards. I suggest that you each spend a few mornings from 8am-9am out at a few of the local Elementary schools and see for yourselves how children, often unaccompanied, have to cross heavy traffic at Handy & Collins, La Veta between Laurinda and Yorba, Main & Palmyra, or Cambridge & Walnut, navigating rush hour and school drop off. This is unconscionable and I can only assume that this is a theatrical cut in order to force residents who may not already see the need to vote for some type of tax increase off of the fence. Using children's safety for this is not right.
If I understand correctly the funding for Crossing Guards in Orange comes from our Public Safety budget. As we're coming on to campaign season perhaps there can be a search held every morning, Monday through Friday, at all of the elementary schools in Orange for missing campaign signs as that seemed to draw four police cruisers, a much more efficient use of city tax funds and a turnout certain to result in safe intersections and perhaps some revenue through traffic citations.
I suggest tabling any discussion of Agenda Item 8.1 until AFTER a solution is found for the City's current budget crisis. Division heads will have to wait for their COLA. And not to be a Grinch, but tabling any discussion of funding for Treats In The Streets also until after the City has found a solution for the current budget crisis.
Please do the right thing. Thanks,
JJ Meis
Orange Citizen, OUSD Parent
Every other district in Orange County doesn’t have to pay for the crossing guards
OUSD doesn’t get to decide the speed limit, crosswalk layout, painting, lighting, stopsign or signal installation, etc. Why would they monitor someone else’s area?
I am an OUSD parent and resident of the City of Orange. I understand that the city is facing a number of financial challenges right now but cutting crossing guards for our children does not seem like the right priority, especially when you are considering funding Treats in the Streets and raises for senior management. OUSD is not equipped to handle crossing guard work and it is standard practice for the city to handle this. The safety of school kids walking to school needs to be heavily considered in any analysis of public safety costs and cuts.
Crossing guards ensure the safety of children who cross the street at busy corners. Why would a city abandon a system that works? The crossing at prospect for Mc Phearson school is awful and requires crosswalk guards to stop cars that otherwise might fly through the streets. The same applies for La Vera elementary! Cars fly down the street and there's no traffic light or stop sign for kids to cross. Please prevent a terrible event and fund crossing guards. Everyone benefits.
I am a parent of a student in OUSD and a City of Orange resident. I oppose the decision made to end crossing guard services in the City of Orange, a vital city service provided to students and families in OUSD. All cities in the County of Orange provide this service, it would be a shame that we do not. OUSD does not have the ability to absorb this cost and does not have the liability insurance needed for this. If the proposed senior management raises were deferred, the crossing guard services could be maintained for a full year. A plan was not put in place before terminating all crossing guards. Please do not put kids and families at risk, please find a way to fund this vital city service. Thank you.
Please bring back the crossing guards for the safety of everyone in the City of Orange! It is vital to protect pedestrian traffic in school zones. Defer raises or cut treats in the streets to fund crossing guards.
City of Orange use common sense and do the right thing. Provide crossing guards for our children. Do not put this on OUSD because you have failed at keeping within your budgets.
I am writing not just as a parent of children who attend public schools in Orange, but as a someone who has lost two family members to a fatal accident in a crosswalk. A father and a daughter lost their lives that day, and I can personally attest to the devastating blow that this type of accident can cause to a family and a community.
We are a community of cousins, neighbors, aunts, uncles, parents, and families who want to thrive in Orange. Providing safe access to schools seems like it should be a high priority, and I was shocked when I realized that crossing guards were no longer being provided by the city. Many of the schools in Orange USD have small parking lots on campus, so even parents who drive our kids to school have to park and cross busy roads to get our students on campus.
These roads can be difficult to navigate, with little traffic oversight offered by Orange PD. Particularly at the start of the school year where drivers may have gotten used to speeding down the hill or running stop signs, our children face a significant safety risk. It is bad enough that the traffic laws are not enforced properly in school zones, but to double down by not providing crossing guards is an accident waiting to happen.
I hope that no one in our community has to endure the pain that my family experienced. Crossing guards can't protect from every possible risk, but they would have prevented the accident that resulted in my cousin and his daughter's lives being tragically cut short.
Please protect our families.