Oxford Borough mayor Lorraine Durnan Bell made an appeal last week for the Oxford Area School District to help find a solution to concerns regarding the hiring and training of crossing guards who are stationed near the school.

Bell made a presentation at the school board’s June 18 meeting, explaining to district officials that she and Oxford Borough Police Chief Sam Iacono want to ensure the safety of pedestrians and motorists.

Currently, the school district and the borough split the costs for the salaries for the crossing guards. The mayor of Oxford Borough has oversight of the crossing guards.

Bell said that she received multiple telephone calls from people expressing concerns about pedestrian safety around the school. She shared the issues that were raised with school district officials, and over the course of the last year she has met with the superintendent, business manager, and a number of different school district committees.

“We let you know that this was an ongoing concern, and that we were trying to address it,” Bell explained. “We can't let it go the way that it is.”

The borough has attempted to hire new crossing guards, Bell explained, but those efforts have been largely unsuccessful because the pay rates aren’t sufficient to attract a pool of applicants. Bell emphasized a need to improve the hiring and training of crossing guards, and borough officials have been exploring various options to accomplish that.

“The option of doing nothing is not an option,” said Bell. “We would like to find a solution and right now we don’t have one.”

She told the school board that one option is to work with a private company that could provide four crossing guards for a total of $78,000 a year. It would then be the company’s responsibility to hire qualified crossing guards.

While that option offers some obvious conveniences, the cost is nearly double what is being paid for crossing guards now. Bell said that the borough would be willing to pay for one-fourth of the $78,000, which is in line with what the borough is contributing now. That would leave the school district on the hook for the remaining 75 percent of the costs.

Oxford Area School District superintendent David Woods was not receptive to that division of costs.

Bell said that another option is for the school district to take over the responsibility of hiring and training the crossing guards because the crossing guards work so closely to the schools.

School district officials didn’t seem to be very receptive to that idea, either.

No one knows exactly when the borough assumed the responsibility of overseeing the crossing guards, but it was long before Woods became the superintendent and Bell became the mayor. Bell noted that Phoenixville is the only other school district in Chester County where the borough oversees crossing guards.

Woods replied that the school district had previously made it clear that they were not looking to make crossing guards district employees, and did not want to take responsibility for hiring and training the crossing guards.

Woods pushed back on a suggestion that the school district could utilize the school police officers that they employ to help oversee the work of the crossing guards. He noted that the school police officers have their own duties, and the times when the crossing guards are out doing their work coincides with when the district police officers are already very busy with so much activity on the campus.

Bell said that if the borough continues to oversee the crossing guards, they want to ensure that they have well-trained people to do the job. There is also a thought that crossing guards should no longer stop traffic so that school buses can exit the school campus quickly. Instead, the crossing guards will focus on helping pedestrians cross the street safely, Bell said.

Woods said that he would like to know what the third-party contractor who handles the busing for the school district would think of not having traffic stopped so that school buses can leave the campus before a change like that was made.

Woods said that the school district is willing to continue to share the costs of the salaries of the crossing guards, and could also help by advertising the need for new crossing guards on the school district’s social media platforms.

In other business at the meeting:

School board member Howard Robinson, who serves as the Oxford School Board's representative on the Chester County Intermediate Unit Board of Directors, talked about the exhaustive process that resulted in the hiring of George Fiore as the new executive director of the Chester County Intermediate Unit. Fiore will become the leader of the Intermediate Unit in August.

The school board approved a new contract with business administrator Brian Cooney. The new contract begins on Aug. 1, 2019 and extends through June 30, 2024.

The school board approved a collective bargaining agreement with the service and support staff. The contract is effective July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2022, pending the approval of the solicitor.

School board member Robert Tenga was re-appointed to the position of school board treasurer for the fiscal year that runs through June 30, 2020.

The law firm of Rinaldi and Poveromo, P.C., was once again appointed as the solicitor for the school district.

School board member Eric Owens was designated as the school boards representative on the Chester County School Boards Legislative Council for the fiscal year that begins on July 1.

The school board officially accepted the Oxford Area High School principal's certification that the graduating seniors in the Class of 2019 have completed the requirements and are entitled to a high school diploma.

With the conclusion of another school year, there were a number of retirements in the school district. The school board approved a resolution honoring the service of some of the longtime professional employees who are retiring after serving the school district with distinction. The resolution honored Karen Andress (25 years), Holly Burt (17 years), Jean Coldiron (5 years), Anne Marie DeAngelis (19 years), Julia Farber (26 years), Kimberly McCardell (32 years), Margaret McGinnis (19 years), David Sample (23 years), Lynne Stroud (24 years), and Kathleen Wagoner (35 years).

A resolution was also approved recognizing the work of service and support employees who are leaving the district, including Kay Barker (18 years) and Steven Tyre (19 years).

The Oxford School Board will hold a work session on Tuesday, Aug. 13 and the next regular meeting will be on Tuesday, Aug. 20. Both meetings take place at 7 p.m. in the Administration Building.