I oppose letting go of all crossing guards in our school district. They are a vital key to the safety of kids in our community. As an adult crossing the street, I often feel unsafe with the reckless driving and running of stop signs I see daily. I think there are cuts to be made elsewhere without making a drastic change to school kids’ safety.
First of all thank you for your service to our communities. As a parent of small children, a licensed driver, and as someone that takes protecting our vulnerable community members seriously, I am very concerned to learn that the budget for crossing guards has been eliminated. I grew up with a friend who watched her kindergarten classmate 30 years ago get struck and killed by a car walking onto campus and it haunts her and the community to this day. Above all else, protecting innocent children from reckless drivers on their walk into campus is a basic community service that shouldn’t be up for discussion. Please get your priorities in order. Do children need another Halloween activity or to survive their walk to school? The answer is clear to me.
The idea that Orange City Council ever even considered being the only city in Orange County to de-fund school crossing guards is just unbelievable to me. OUSD should not be put in a position to take on this cost simply because the Council would rather use that money for their own raises. Members of the Orange City Council ... this is not a good look. The optics are terrible and the actual impact on the safety (and traffic flow) around our schools will be significant. I can promise you that this is a decision that I and many others will remember when voting.
As a parent of an OUSD student, this is outrageous. I drive to work in the mornings after dropping my child off at school. The crosswalks I drive thru are very dangerous and NEED someone to monitor them. This is very scary to hear as I witness this every morning. There are plenty of drivers without school age children that do not care and do not pay attention at crosswalks. Only the crossing guard protects our kids. This is absolutely the city's responsibility and I assure you if one of their children were in an accident at a crosswalk this would not be on the agenda!
I am appalled that you would choose to fill your pockets rather than to protect children. I have a child who attends a OUSD school and I cannot believe that you are willing to take a pay increase over funding crossing guards. I have seen first hand several times where cars have gone speeding by the school with no concern for the children, parents and teachers. The school district has no control over the speed limit or any other traffic violation why should they be in charge of crossing guards. Protect our kids not your personal bank account.
I strongly oppose your plan to cut crossing guard funding while also proposing over $300k in raises. Our children need to be protected. This would absolutely be unheard of and would make us the only people in Orange County doing something as reckless as this. This should be on the city to fund which is how the entire county runs. It would take a significant amount of time to correct and would be stealing funding from our education systems for important programs. I strongly urge you to consider our children and not yourselves. Keep the crossing guards. Do not pass the raises.
Dear Orange City Council,
As an employee of OUSD, I find it dangerous and reckless that you’ve cut the entire budget for crossing guards for our schools but are considering giving salary raises to senior management as well as funding Treats in the Streets. The safety of our students and their parents should be number one on your safety agenda, what is it going to take for you to reverse this decision? A child being killed while walking to school? I urge you to reconsider this reckless decision before tragedy strikes. Thank you.
Dear Mayor Dan Slater and Orange City Council,
vehemently oppose $366,440 in the form of raises for senior management- it is ridiculous that the city is even considering this. If there is money in the budget for salary increases, it should first be spent funding crossing guards for our schools.
The city should not be funding Treats In The Streets or giving raises while the city is in a financial crisis! What you should be funding is the crossing guard program. You are literally putting children's lives at risk by canceling it..
My name is Penny Laris, and I am a resident of District 6 in the city of Orange. I am writing to express my family’s strong opposition to the proposed development of the Orange Heights neighborhood by the Irvine Company. The Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for this project is outdated, and the disruption to this wildlife corridor will be devastating.
This project threatens to take away the unique experience of living in nature that sets our city apart from its neighbors. Because my compact home does not have a yard—or really any outdoor space—for my young children to play in, we rely on the nearby trails in and around Irvine Park and Peter's Canyon for them to explore the outdoors weekly. These natural spaces provide many young families like mine with the opportunity to learn about the wildlife in our community, which was a major reason my husband and I chose to lay down our roots in East Orange. My son, who is a Cub Scout from Pack 1475 in our Orange community, is absolutely heartbroken to learn that the plants and animals we often see in this area—like bobcats, roadrunners, deer, woodpeckers, snakes, and wildflowers—will soon be losing their habitat.
I urge you to halt the development of Orange Heights, not only for the sake of our current residents—both human and wildlife—but also for the future generations of Orange residents who count on the decisions we make today to ensure they also have this precious land to enjoy.
I oppose letting go of all crossing guards in our school district. They are a vital key to the safety of kids in our community. As an adult crossing the street, I often feel unsafe with the reckless driving and running of stop signs I see daily. I think there are cuts to be made elsewhere without making a drastic change to school kids’ safety.
Dear City Council members,
First of all thank you for your service to our communities. As a parent of small children, a licensed driver, and as someone that takes protecting our vulnerable community members seriously, I am very concerned to learn that the budget for crossing guards has been eliminated. I grew up with a friend who watched her kindergarten classmate 30 years ago get struck and killed by a car walking onto campus and it haunts her and the community to this day. Above all else, protecting innocent children from reckless drivers on their walk into campus is a basic community service that shouldn’t be up for discussion. Please get your priorities in order. Do children need another Halloween activity or to survive their walk to school? The answer is clear to me.
Emily Egkan
The idea that Orange City Council ever even considered being the only city in Orange County to de-fund school crossing guards is just unbelievable to me. OUSD should not be put in a position to take on this cost simply because the Council would rather use that money for their own raises. Members of the Orange City Council ... this is not a good look. The optics are terrible and the actual impact on the safety (and traffic flow) around our schools will be significant. I can promise you that this is a decision that I and many others will remember when voting.
As a parent of an OUSD student, this is outrageous. I drive to work in the mornings after dropping my child off at school. The crosswalks I drive thru are very dangerous and NEED someone to monitor them. This is very scary to hear as I witness this every morning. There are plenty of drivers without school age children that do not care and do not pay attention at crosswalks. Only the crossing guard protects our kids. This is absolutely the city's responsibility and I assure you if one of their children were in an accident at a crosswalk this would not be on the agenda!
I am appalled that you would choose to fill your pockets rather than to protect children. I have a child who attends a OUSD school and I cannot believe that you are willing to take a pay increase over funding crossing guards. I have seen first hand several times where cars have gone speeding by the school with no concern for the children, parents and teachers. The school district has no control over the speed limit or any other traffic violation why should they be in charge of crossing guards. Protect our kids not your personal bank account.
Dear Mayor and council,
I strongly oppose your plan to cut crossing guard funding while also proposing over $300k in raises. Our children need to be protected. This would absolutely be unheard of and would make us the only people in Orange County doing something as reckless as this. This should be on the city to fund which is how the entire county runs. It would take a significant amount of time to correct and would be stealing funding from our education systems for important programs. I strongly urge you to consider our children and not yourselves. Keep the crossing guards. Do not pass the raises.
Danika Dickerson 92869
Dear Orange City Council,
As an employee of OUSD, I find it dangerous and reckless that you’ve cut the entire budget for crossing guards for our schools but are considering giving salary raises to senior management as well as funding Treats in the Streets. The safety of our students and their parents should be number one on your safety agenda, what is it going to take for you to reverse this decision? A child being killed while walking to school? I urge you to reconsider this reckless decision before tragedy strikes. Thank you.
Dear Mayor Dan Slater and Orange City Council,
vehemently oppose $366,440 in the form of raises for senior management- it is ridiculous that the city is even considering this. If there is money in the budget for salary increases, it should first be spent funding crossing guards for our schools.
The city should not be funding Treats In The Streets or giving raises while the city is in a financial crisis! What you should be funding is the crossing guard program. You are literally putting children's lives at risk by canceling it..
Dear Mayor Dan Slater and Orange City Council,
My name is Penny Laris, and I am a resident of District 6 in the city of Orange. I am writing to express my family’s strong opposition to the proposed development of the Orange Heights neighborhood by the Irvine Company. The Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for this project is outdated, and the disruption to this wildlife corridor will be devastating.
This project threatens to take away the unique experience of living in nature that sets our city apart from its neighbors. Because my compact home does not have a yard—or really any outdoor space—for my young children to play in, we rely on the nearby trails in and around Irvine Park and Peter's Canyon for them to explore the outdoors weekly. These natural spaces provide many young families like mine with the opportunity to learn about the wildlife in our community, which was a major reason my husband and I chose to lay down our roots in East Orange. My son, who is a Cub Scout from Pack 1475 in our Orange community, is absolutely heartbroken to learn that the plants and animals we often see in this area—like bobcats, roadrunners, deer, woodpeckers, snakes, and wildflowers—will soon be losing their habitat.
I urge you to halt the development of Orange Heights, not only for the sake of our current residents—both human and wildlife—but also for the future generations of Orange residents who count on the decisions we make today to ensure they also have this precious land to enjoy.