Tell the Santa Monica City Council to save the Crossing Guard program! 

Safety is the #1 priority of local governments.  When the SMMUSD schools reopen, children walking to school will again need the help of Crossing Guards to get there safely.

The city’s “Santa Monica: A Plan for the Future” laid out proposed budget cuts by each department for FY 2020-21. The Police Department (SMPD) proposed eliminating Crossing Guard services.

There were 40 crossing guards in Santa Monica in 2019-20 serving 9 elementary schools and 2 middle schools. The starting annual salary was about $20,000, and the average salary was about $27,000.

City of Santa Monica employee salaries as of 2018 are posted on this website: https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2018/santa-monica/ 

If two or three of the top earning SMPD officers retired, the savings could probably pay for the entire Crossing Guard program. Here is what some SMPD officers earned in total pay (regular pay, overtime pay, other pay) plus benefits in 2018:

$473,958 -- $464,008 -- $438,479 -- $435,248 -- $426,347 -- $425,276 -- $416,924 -- $416,316 -- $409,526 -- $403,696 -- $400,997 -- $399,924 -- $396,445 -- $394,287 -- $394,099 -- $390,371 -- $383,603 -- $377,529 -- $377,371 -- $375,614 -- $375,226 -- $370,541 -- $367,759 -- $367,703 -- $367,441 -- $364,479 – $363,543 – $357,120 – $356,276 -- $354,818 – $350,525 – $349,922 – $349,353 -- $348,080 -- $347,151 -- $346,730 -- $339,797 -- $338,297 -- $322,193 -- $318,067 – $318,064 -- $316,335 -- $316,285 -- $316,194 -- $314,695 -- $313,510 -- $312,023 -- $308,820 -- $301,264

Tell the Santa Monica City Council to protect the safety of our school children by saving the Crossing Guard program!