SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA / A news summary : The Local Review / DEVELOPMENTS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY : City to Expand Use of Volunteer Crosswalk Guards

Assistant Principal Rosalba Manrique was shocked when she came to Fair Avenue Elementary school two years ago and saw small children darting in and out between cars as impatient parents honked their way through busy intersections after school.

“I walked out and started stopping traffic with my bare hands,” Manrique said Wednesday, standing on the corner of Kittredge Street and Fair Avenue, where four volunteer guards now help children and parents cross the street. “Can you imagine this without guards?”

Manrique started contacting city and police officials, and last year her school joined Safe Crossings, a program sponsored by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Today, 16 volunteers help the school’s 1,800 students safely cross streets, and a second group of volunteers will be trained this fall.

In an effort to bring hundreds of volunteer crossing guards to elementary schools that do not qualify for paid guards, Councilmen Mike Feuer and Mike Hernandez and officials with the Los Angeles Unified School District announced Wednesday--the district’s first day of the 1999-2000 school year--to expand the Safe Crossings program citywide.

Only about 60% of the city’s elementary schools have full-time crossing guards provided by the Department of Transportation.

“Securing school intersections with volunteer crossing guards is a terrific solution to this problem,” Feuer said. “The Safe Crossings program worked well. But until now it’s only been available at a handful of schools.”

Since it costs about $15,000 a year to staff an intersection, the city Department of Transportation pays for guards at only 262 of the 450 public elementary schools in Los Angeles.

A new intersection rating system and an anticipated infusion of funds should raise the number slightly, but nearly 100 schools that want crossing guards have been turned down, district officials said.

About 130 schools have expressed interest in the Safe Crossings program, according to a survey conducted over the summer, said Joe Nardulle, a school traffic specialist for the district.

To be eligible, schools need to have applied for a paid crossing guard and been turned down. Then they can apply to the LAPD, which will train volunteers.

Besides recruiting the volunteers, schools have to supply vests, stop signs and traffic cones. The city’s Volunteer Bureau will provide liability insurance.

“When you are a motorist driving to work in a hurry, and you see your neighbor helping kids cross the street, that makes you drive more carefully,” said Joe Nardulle, a school traffic specialist for the district.