Trustees discuss volunteer crossing-guard programs, ask administration to explore options and liability
Summary
Trustee Ashby urged leveraging PTO volunteers for crossing-guard coverage; Superintendent Dr. Newton and counsel explained statutory protections for volunteers but said district liability is not eliminated. The board asked administration to meet principals and partners to pursue tailored solutions.
Trustee Ashby asked whether the district could coordinate PTO and volunteer groups to provide crossing guards across multiple schools. She said some schools already use parent volunteers and asked whether the district could 'pull that together' and scale it where needed.
Superintendent Dr. Newton and counsel explained recent legislative changes (an amendment to the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act referenced in the meeting) reduced individual volunteer exposure but did not eliminate lawsuits against the district. Dr. Newton said the statutory change protects an individual crossing guard from personal liability in their individual capacity but does not stop a lawsuit naming the district; counsel explained the Act limits damages recoverable from a public entity rather than removing exposure entirely.
Administrators and principals told trustees that staffing crossing guards presents an operational trade-off: staff deployed off campus to supervise crossings would be removed from existing on-site supervision duties (playgrounds, lunchrooms). Trustees described varied traffic conditions across the district (examples cited: segments of College Drive with posted 40 mph speeds versus quieter neighborhood schools) and agreed that there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution.
Trustee Cook, who has volunteered as a crossing guard, said safety must come first: "A child's life is way more important than any lawsuit that can ever be brought up." Several trustees urged the superintendent and administration to convene principals, SROs, law-enforcement partners and PTO leaders to identify school-level solutions and report back.
The board directed administration to begin those conversations and develop recommendations tailored to individual schools' traffic and supervision realities.
