Grappling with a massive budget deficit, Chicago Public Schools is ending the practice of providing crossing guards for intersections that exclusively serve private school students.
Chicago Public Schools says providing crossing guards for private schools is outside its core mission. And, facing a $734 million deficit, officials are looking for savings wherever they can find them. The district also said at least two of the crossing guards were students who attend suburban Catholic schools.
Altogether CPS is eliminating 102 crossing guard positions, a third of which only serve private school students. CPS had 732 crossing guard positions last year.
The decision has outraged Ald. Matt O’Shea, whose far Southwest Side ward is home to several Catholic elementary schools. Fifteen, or half of all the covered intersections in his area, are being eliminated. That includes 11 used by private school students.
“Every taxpayer in the city of Chicago who has a child attending a school, I don’t care if it is public, if it’s private or if it’s a charter school … every single child should be able to walk to school safely,” O’Shea said.
According to the state, Chicago has 268 private schools so not every private school has had crossing guards provided by CPS.
Beyond the crossing guard positions serving private schools, district officials say they worked with the Illinois Department of Transportation to determine which ones could be eliminated. They chose locations used by few students or where Safe Passage workers could help cross students. No public school will lose all its positions.
CPS officials did not decide to assign crossing guards to private schools. Until 2021, the city managed crossing guards. Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot shifted the cost to CPS, saying it was a step toward disentangling CPS from the city as the school district moved to an elected school board. It also helped her balance her budget.
When asked, Chief Operating Officer Charles Mayfield noted that CPS doesn’t provide support services such meals or custodians for private schools.
When the city shifted guards to CPS in 2021, the program cost $16.6 million. Last year, CPS planned to spend $18.4 million. CPS did not say how much it will save through these reductions. Mayfield acknowledged that in a $10 billion budget, the savings in the crossing guard program are not going to make a major dent. However, every dollar counts, he said.
Mayfield reached out to the Archdiocese of Chicago, which oversees the affected Catholic schools, before announcing the decision and offered to continue managing crossing guards, if the archdiocese pays them. He said the district also offered to help train volunteer crossing guards.
The archdiocese declined to answer specific questions, but wrote in a statement that it has a “good working relationship with CPS.”
“We are concerned that these cuts could endanger the safety of some children,” according to the statement. “ If cuts need to occur, we believe they should be based on safety criteria, not on which type of school a child might be walking to.”
Crossing guards will continue to work at 35 intersections serving both public and private school students.
O’Shea blasted the district’s decision-making process, saying community members were left in the dark about the cuts.
“CPS, without communicating with any school leadership in the neighborhood, without any community leaders in the neighborhood, without any elected officials in my neighborhood, shut down 11 crossing guard posts with no plan, no communication,” O’Shea said.
O’Shea said he reached out to CPS leadership early last week after learning about their plans but hasn’t received answers to his questions. He plans to meet with city and CPS officials.
Last week the alderperson called for an investigation into how CPS selected the impacted intersections and for City Council hearings.
O’Shea also expressed doubt that CPS could adequately train volunteers in the few weeks before school starts, and that may endanger students.
“What volunteers are they going to train and put in place in just a few weeks? he said. “What liability are they going to take on? Because I’m telling you … in a day, in a week, in six months, we’re going to have something terrible happen at one of these many, many school crossings where there’s been a crossing guard.”
Chicago Board of Education member Therese Boyle agreed with O’Shea, calling for the crossing guard positions to remain until the district comes up with a plan to replace them. Boyle is the elected representative for the district that includes O’Shea’s 19th Ward.
“Getting a solid cadre of volunteers, providing training, introducing them to the children — I just don’t see us being able to roll all that out in the next couple of weeks,” she said. “In the meantime I think we need to keep all crossing guards in place.”
Boyle said she learned about the impact to her district only last week, and has yet to review the data from IDOT used to determine where to eliminate positions.
“I don’t know how the decisions were made,” she said.
Boyle also expects to participate in the meeting with city and CPS officials alongside O’Shea and other impacted board members.
She added that many impacted parents in her district are also “trying to wrap their heads around this decision” because although they send their children to private schools their property taxes contribute to CPS funding.
“They are taxpayers and they see on their tax bill the percentage of their taxes that goes to support the Chicago Public Schools,” Boyle said. “So they’re wondering why they can’t have a tiny piece of that to make sure that their child is safely crossed getting to school.”
Emmanuel Camarillo covers K-12 education for the Sun-Times. Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ. Follow her on X @WBEZeducation and @sskedreporter.