Let’s go back to a September 1979 edition of the Optimist, showing student crossing guards Caroline Visser and Ricky Taylor at Delta Manor school.
With the return of school, police urged motorists to drive carefully.
Twenty years later, in the spring of 1999, parents rallied against the school board’s decision to cut the district’s adult crossing guard program due to a $1.7-million budget shortfall.
The crossing guard portion of the budget at that time was $107,000.
A Delta council meeting that spring saw a large number of irate parents show up demanding the municipality pick up the tab for the safety of their children.
A deal was then struck between Delta and the school board that saw the municipality pick up that cost in exchange for Delta receiving enhanced use of school playing fields.
The municipality would also provide a higher level of maintenance to some of the school fields to allow for increased usage and bring them up to municipal standards.
The deal saw Delta assume funding beginning in the fall of 1999.
The annual cost since then has been around $100,000.
Delta’s engineering department reviews sites on an annual basis and makes adjustments depending on traffic, crosswalk projects and other factors considered by a technical committee.
City council this summer agreed to provide $118,000 for the school district’s crossing guard program for 2023/24.
This year, another location has been added near Gibson Elementary in North Delta, raising the number of guards to 29.
