BETHLEHEM, Pa. — There should be a school crossing guard at Broadway and Delaware Avenue, in front of the St. Ursula Catholic Church in Fountain Hill.
But the position has been vacant since August.
- Some Lehigh Valley school districts are short more than a dozen school crossing guards
- Pay raises have helped some districts fill vacant positions
- The hours and onboarding process can deter some applicants
Fountain Hill Borough Council President Norman Blatt said the post was filled by volunteers on a part-time basis before that. The position supports children coming and going from Fountain Hill Elementary School.
The borough and Bethlehem Area School District have agreed to raise the pay rate to $15 an hour, and split the cost.
“With our budget going into 2023, hoping that the increased pay would attract someone,” Blatt said. “Unfortunately that hasn’t happened. The position is still empty and it’s still being filled by our police.”
School districts across Lehigh Valley are facing a similar struggle.
The City of Allentown partners with All City Management Services to hire crossing guards. The company, headquartered in California, offers its services across the United States.
Haley Frome, All City’s assistant regional manager for the East Coast, helps Allentown and Easton Area School Districts hire contractors. She said Allentown currently needs to hire 10 to 15 more school crossing guards, while Easton needs about five more.
Allentown pays $14.50 an hour, but if someone works two hours a day, he or she will get paid for an additional hour. That means earning $43.50 a day.
In Easton, crossing guards make $15.50 an hour for two hours a day.
Frome said typical crossing guards work for the schools, are retirees or work multiple jobs and need a little extra income. She said a recent job fair the City of Allentown held drew an overwhelming response from interested job seekers.
“We’ve never seen that before, which was so exciting,” Frome said. “But the thing is people come and they learn the information about the job and then maybe two hours isn’t enough for them.
"The other thing is, because we work in schools they have to complete their onboarding, they also have to have child clearance and we do finger-printing. We pay for everything, but there are a lot of steps to get through.”
The City of Bethlehem and the Bethlehem Area School District together raised the pay of school crossing guards in the city to $15 an hour.
Lt. William Audelo, who heads Bethlehem Traffic and School Safety for the city, said that while the department had a significant shortage of crossing guards for a few years, increasing the hourly wages helped them reach full staffing.
The contractors work two to four hours a day.
"Obviously with somebody there to control traffic, the children are a little safer, but I don't think they're at risk if they follow some commonsense rules."Borough of Fountain Hill Council President Norman Blatt
Freemansburg in Northampton County said it also is fully staffed. Its starting rate is $13.50 and tops out at $15.25. Bethlehem Area School District pays half of the hourly cost for an average of four hours a day.
Blatt said the intersection at Broadway and Delaware has changed from a school crossing area to a pedestrian crossing area. As long as the kids use the button that lights up the traffic control lights and exercises due caution, they should be safe crossing the street on Broadway.
"Obviously with somebody there to control traffic, the children are a little safer," he said. "But I don't think they're at risk if they follow some commonsense rules."
