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MEDIA CONTACT: Jace Radke | 702.229.2205 | 702.249.3514 | jradke@lasvegasnevada.gov
City Council To Hear Future Item To Approve
Additional Crossing Guard Funding
Pilot Program Showed Better Compliance With Traffic Laws
UPDATE - PLEASE SEE BOLDED CLARIFICATION BELOW -UPDATE
At today’s Las Vegas City Council meeting, staff were directed to bring an item back to the Council that would provide additional funding to add crossing guards to the 16 Clark County School District middle schools and three high schools in the city of Las Vegas. The city already funds crossing guards at all of the elementary schools in its jurisdiction.
The city budgets $2.87 million annually on 287 crossing guards at 72 elementary schools, and adding additional guards to middle schools and three high schools will cost an additional $415,000 a year. The process to hire crossing guards for middle schools and three high schools is now moving forward with the fuinding that was approved today. Future funding will need to be allocated to cover the additional costs of adding these guards.
As crossing guards are hired they will begin working at the middle schools that are located in the most hazardous traffic corridors and then filling the rest until all 16 middle schools have crossing guards. This will take some time and guards will not be in place for the start of the school year at middle schools.
Between November 2024 and running through May 2025, the city had crossing guards at Cimarron-Memorial High School and Gibson Middle School as part of a pilot program. This initiative aimed to explore the effectiveness of having crossing guards at secondary schools, beyond just elementary schools. The decision for this pilot was based on community input, the number of students crossing, student attendance and feedback gathered through surveys. The city collected survey responses and traffic data throughout the pilot to better understand the impact.
The pilot showed that there was better compliance to traffic laws for vehicles and pedestrians when crossing guards were present. Pedestrians who were surveyed reported that they felt more comfortable when crossing guards were present.
The pilot program will continue at the high school level, where the city plans to have crossing guards at Cimarron-Memorial and will add Arbor View and Palo Verde due to a higher number of traffic incidents.
The city will continue to routinely maintain signs and pavement markings in school zones during the summer months and throughout the school year. Roadway safety concerns can be reported at www.lasvegasnevada.gov/report (includes the See, Click, Fix Application), via an online form or by calling 702.229.6331.
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