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Council trims crossing-guard roster to 18 locations, directs safety upgrades and monitoring
Summary
Facing chronic staffing shortages and rising contract costs, Redondo Beach council voted to reduce the number of staffed crossing-guard locations from 27 to 18 next school year, while directing tactical safety measures at sites that lose guards and asking staff to coordinate a communications campaign with the school district.
Redondo Beach's City Council approved a subcommittee recommendation to shrink the city's staffed crossing-guard footprint from 27 locations to 18, citing chronic recruitment and reliability problems that have forced the police department to reassign sworn officers and other staff to cover vacancies.
"The subcommittee is proposing to reduce the total number of staffed crossing guard locations from 27 to 18," Jane Chung of the city manager's office told the council, outlining a plan that emphasizes equity (at least one guarded location per campus), prioritized staffing at the highest-need intersections and installation of tactical safety measures where guards are removed.
Staff said they recorded about 675 callouts among part-time guards between August 2025 and April 2026, a level of absenteeism that often required assigning overtime or pulling sworn officers from core duties. The initiative shifts the program toward a larger roster of reliably scheduled part-time city employees, eliminates some contract locations and reduces reliance on one-time appropriations while projecting annual savings.
Council members and principals said they were troubled by losing some locations but acknowledged the staffing reality. Councilmember Barren, co-chair of the subcommittee, said the changes were painful but necessary to create a sustainable program and pledged an outreach plan with the school district. "Any location that may currently have a crossing guard where that crossing guard will be relocated or removed is not being abandoned," he said, adding that tactical treatments and traffic-calming would be installed.
Public commenters urged keeping specific guards at Jefferson and several Prospect corridor intersections. Council directed staff to implement the plan for the next school year, fund and staff 18 locations as the target level and monitor results; council voted unanimous to adopt the recommendation.
Next steps: Staff will work with the school district on a joint communications plan, install tactical safety measures (curb extensions, flexible bollards, temporary cones) at sites losing guards and return periodic monitoring reports to council.
Provenance: Subcommittee presentation and staffing data: SEG 3223-3321 (Jane Chung); public comments and principal input: SEG 3631-3721; council motion and vote: SEG 4251-4260 (motion) and SEG 4881 (vote).
