Safe Passage workers who supervise Chicago Public Schools students as they walk to and from school will see their hours cut this year amid a budget crunch.
Ronan Shableski, interim chief of safety and security at CPS, told Board of Education members at a meeting Wednesday that the program’s budget is being reduced, but the schedule changes will help ensure coverage to all 191 schools with Safe Passage routes. Workers will be on the streets for 30 fewer minutes in the mornings and afternoons — an hour less every day.
Safe Passage workers are meant to offer a sense of security to students traveling to and from school. They often break up fights or heed off outside dangers in an attempt to de-escalate troubling situations.
Safe Passage’s budget has been scaled back nearly $6 million in the past year as CPS has faced a more than half-billion dollar deficit. The district budgeted $22 million for Safe Passage last school year but amended that down to $18 million. This year the program will cost $16.3 million.
“I’m a strong supporter of Safe Passage,” said elected board member Yesenia Lopez, whose district includes Brighton Park and Archer Heights. “It’s a program that I can see — at least in the 7th district — the impact it has.
“I am concerned that the quality and efficiency in how effective it might be, given some of these cuts [in] the number of hours,” she said.
Levella Wallace, who has been a Safe Passage worker for 12 years at various schools, called the reduction in hours unfair for students and their families.
“They’re not gonna have that support out there that they should, that they normally have,” Wallace said, adding that she worries less supervision after school will lead to more conflicts.
The reduction in hours and funding are sure to upset more workers and community organizations, but they’ve already braced for the possibility of deeper cuts as the district tackles its deficit.
Last month, the district cut crossing guards for intersections that exclusively serve private school students as well as many locations that serve public school students. They said they chose locations in part where Safe Passage workers could help cross public school students.
The budget was the main topic of discussion at Wednesday’s board meeting. CPS leaders presented a budget proposal wiping away the deficit through a combination of mechanisms. Those included cuts to operations and central office, refinancing debt, using reserve funds, counting a philanthropic donation in the budget and expecting $379 million from the city from a TIF surplus.
Some school board members said they see the budget as a “draft” that could change before they vote on the plan Aug. 28.