School is denied crossing guards

Parents at Eastbluff Elementary School who have campaigned fervently

to place city crossing guards outside the Newport Beach campus may

have to wait for their dream to become a reality.

City traffic engineer Rich Edmonston said Monday that after

monitoring one of the intersections near Eastbluff, his staff had

found that not enough children passed through it to meet the state

requirement for a crossing guard. According to the state, a stop

sign-controlled crossing must have 500 vehicles and 40 school-age

pedestrians in one hour to warrant an adult supervisor.

After city officials ran a study of the intersection at Eastbluff

Drive and Bixia Street -- one of two intersections that Eastbluff

parents have cited in a petition drive -- they reported that the

pedestrian count came up short.

“The results are that the crosswalk we studied doesn’t meet the

criteria,” Edmonston said. “The busiest hour we caught, there were 20

students, and the criteria is 40.”

For the study, the researchers tallied only children who crossed

the street unaccompanied by adults, and also discounted children who

were past elementary school age.

Edmonston said the city traffic affairs committee, of which he is

a member, would discuss the crossing guard issue at its Wednesday

meeting. He noted that any decision the committee made was

appealable, and that the city would be willing to monitor other

crossings if the public demanded it. The petition also mentions the

intersection of Vista del Oro and Vista del Sol, which the city has

not reviewed.

“If they’re submitting a petition asking us to look at other

locations, we’ll be happy to do that,” Edmonston said.

Annie Lindt, one of the parents who started the campaign, said she

was not surprised by Edmonston’s ruling but wanted to attend the

Wednesday meeting to discuss her group’s concerns.

“We just need a solution,” Lindt said. “We don’t know what that

solution is. We just need to keep kids safe, and I’m up to listening

and doing what we can to make that intersection safe.”

Last week, a group of Eastbluff parents began standing at the two

intersections with orange vests and stop signs and guiding children

across the street. At the same time, Lindt and another parent,

Jennifer Mannon, began circulating a petition demanding that the city

place official crossing guards at both locations.

The parents ended their guard duty after the Newport Beach Police

Department informed them that civilians could not direct traffic

without professional training.

However, the parents continued their campaign by distributing

fliers and bringing the petition door-to-door in the Eastbluff

neighborhood, which also contains Corona del Mar High and Our Lady

Queen of Angels private school.

To date, more than 150 people have signed the petition. While most

of the signers were parents of Eastbluff students, others were merely

concerned residents.

“I’ve crossed there in order to walk in the Bluffs and have found

it daunting at odd times of the day, so I could empathize with

children crossing there at a time when traffic was pretty fierce,”

said Meredith Porter, a grandmother who signed the petition.

Lindt said she was not sure when her group would turn in the

petition to the city. If the traffic affairs committee makes any

recommendation about a safety measure, it must go to the City Council

for approval.

Newport Beach, which hires its crossing guards through All Cities

Management Services, currently has guards outside five schools:

Mariners, Newport, Newport Heights and Newport Coast elementary

schools and Corona del Mar High.

Last summer, the city moved the crosswalk and added a guard

outside the high school in response to parent concerns.

Costa Mesa, which also contracts with All Cities, does not

specifically match crossing guards to schools.

However, engineering technician John Cox said the city has

supervisors near a number of campuses, including Wilson, Pomona, Rea

and Victoria elementary schools, TeWinkle Middle School and Estancia

High.