Following pointed objections (click here for coverage) lodged by Vienna officials , residents and the GazetteLeader editorial page, the Fairfax County Police Department will not move forward for now with plans to cut nine school-crossing-guard positions in the town.
The Board of Supervisors on April 16 unanimously approved a motion by Supervisors Walter Alcorn (D-Hunter Mill) and Rodney Lusk (D-Franconia), along with Chairman Jeff McKay (D), to halt that initiative until it could be reviewed further and discussed by supervisors later.
“No changes in coverage have been made, nor will any be made, until at a minimum FCPD can update and discuss with the Board of Supervisors the school-crossing-guard program, the proposed changes, national best practices for handling school crossings and recommendations to consider,” Alcorn said.
“We don’t want to suggest that there might not be any changes,” McKay said. “We just don’t want any changes now, especially as we close out this school year.”
There now are 170 county school-crossing locations that see 340 crossings per school day. Each crossing lasts 30 minutes, which allows some crossing guards to cover multiple locations.
County police currently have filled 53 of its 72 crossing-guard positions. If crossing guards aren’t available, the department each day pulls dozens of officers off patrol work to handle those duties, leaving them unavailable to respond to service calls or emergencies, Alcorn said.
During the police department’s 2023 review, police eliminated a few crossings based on their existing criteria and identified several crossings that the department historically had covered outside its normal patrol areas, he said. These included one each in Herndon and Fort Belvoir and nine in Vienna (including ones serving Cunningham Park, Louise Archer, Vienna and Marshall Road elementary schools and Thoreau Middle School).
While officials in the first two areas last fall agreed to handle those crossings, Vienna leaders, backed by parents and other residents, bucked the trend.
In a letter to Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis, Vienna Police Chief James Morris reiterated the town’s position that county police were responsible for staffing crossing-guard posts at the county’s public schools.
“Vienna residents are full Fairfax County residents and pay full Fairfax County taxes; accordingly, town residents are entitled to all Fairfax County services, including school crossing guards,” wrote Morris.
That also was the view of the GazetteLeader editorial page. “Vienna residents are not second-class citizens, and it’s time for Fairfax leaders to pull back on this ill-advised proposal,” the paper said on April 4.
Supervisors need to hash out the crossing-guard issue before the start of the next school year, especially with regard to Vienna, McKay said.
“We need to have a thorough conversation about where we go from here,” McKay said.
Supervisor Patrick Herrity (R-Springfield) said the issue was not just about Vienna but public safety overall, as county police have been pulling an “unacceptable” number of officers from patrol duties. The county government should take a larger look at recruiting and retaining crossing guards, Herrity said.
“We’ve got to figure another path,” Lusk acknowledged.
