Crossing guards, the friendly faces that greet and protect children on their way to school, are in short supply in Albuquerque.
Scott Cilke, public information officer for the city’s general services department, told KRQE crossing guards are often overlooked but make a positive impact on students and the community. Now they are in short supply for the Albuquerque Public Schools.
“It’s someone who just provides such a positive impact on so many people, it really does kind of get overlooked," Cilke said. "The big reason for the shortage, you know, the pandemic hit, and APS essentially went home for two years and when we came back, we didn’t get the numbers back that we had before.”
According to KRQE, the general services department normally has 150 crossing guards to spread around APS, but only have about 110 now. Crossing guards are provided free of charge to up to 74 APS elementary schools.
“We’ve been making some strides to get back to those numbers but obviously, being 30 to 50 crossing guards away, we still have a lot of work to do,” Cilke told KRQE. “The city likes to place two crossing guards at every school during busy drop-off and pick-up times. But, it will have to adjust given lower staffing levels.”
Schools that have low levels of traffic have been reduced to one crossing guard instead of two, KRQE reported.
“It’s possible that some schools in the past that had crossing guards might not have crossing guards,” Cilke said to KRQE.
The department is trying to recruit new crossing guards at job fairs, growers’ markets and senior centers, according to KRQE. A potential pay increase has also been suggested as an incentive for people to apply.
"It’s so important for us to recruit and get numbers up so we can provide adequate service to as many schools as we possibly can,” Cilke told KRQE.
