Marin school crossing guard program gets $500K boost

The Transportation Authority of Marin plans to spend $500,000 to help preserve its school crossing guard program.

The move is one strategy the agency is pursuing as rising costs threaten cutbacks. The agency will draw the money from its sales tax interest fund as a one-time expense in the hopes of maintaining 96 crossing guards at busy intersections on school routes throughout the county, officials said.

The agency’s board authorized the action on Jan. 22.

“There are a lot of moving parts in this crossing guard program,” said Dan Cherrier, a Transportation Authority of Marin manager. “As always, we’re looking for additional funding.”

Because the crossing guard program is ongoing, and also not a capital improvement project, there are few sources the agency can tap into for financial support, Cherrier said.

For the 2025-26 school year, the program is staffing 96 guards at 96 crossings. It is expected to cost about $2.5 million. The funding is a mix of revenue from Measure AA, a half-cent sales tax, and Measure B, a $10 vehicle registration fee.

The agency estimates that costs are going to grow about 4% annually.

Changes to the state minimum wage are one of the bigger factors in the rising costs. Hiring and retaining guards has been difficult, too, because other Bay Area jurisdictions pay higher wages for the same job, staff said.

If the agency decided not to adjust for that increase, the number of guards would drop to 86 for the next school year.

Staff proposed several options for consideration, including using funds from the One Bay Area Grant, or OBAG, a federal program that is administered through the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

However, federal funding sources cannot be used for the program without federalizing crossing guard contracts, which would result in an estimated 10% increase.

The federal funds could be used if the district shuffled some money. That would involve injecting the federal money into a different project or program that is already funded, and then siphoning the other existing funds into the crossing guard program.

“The OBAG funds have so many strings attached and the swapping — it got complicated,” said Kate Colin, mayor of San Rafael and chair of the Transportation Authority of Marin.

Colin said that’s how the agency settled on using the one-time withdrawal from the sales tax interest fund.

“It makes sense in terms of what we get out of the funding and the number of guards,” Colin said.

The option will enable the district to maintain 96 guards through at least 2030. However, it relies on the approval of another proposal in the works.

The agency is considering a redistribution of Measure AA sales tax revenue that could provide an additional $1.25 million for the crossing guard program through 2034.

The district opened a 45-day public comment period on the Measure AA expenditure plan at its Jan. 22 meeting.

The expenditure plan also includes redirecting tax revenue from two funding categories to create a new “reimagined roadway” fund.

Four percent of revenue would be pulled from a local roads fund. An “innovative technology” category would be eliminated, freeing another half-percent. That revenue would feed the new fund with 4.5% revenue for major road projects on key Marin corridors. That translates to around $35 million over the life of the tax, which expires in 2049.

The TAM board is expected to hold a public hearing on the Measure AA expenditure plan in March. Elected boards and councils governing Marin municipalities would then be asked to endorse the plan before it is finalized.

Another part in play is the crossing guard sites.

The Transportation Authority of Marin hired consultants to conduct video analysis of crossing guard sites and help recommend which crossings warrant a guard.

A priority list is expected to be presented to the board in April. There is a caveat.

The agency’s contractor will require that it hire two guards for intersections with multiple lane crossings. Staff said there are eight such crossings. If those crossings continued to be funded, there would only be enough money for 96 guards, but at 88 sites, Cherrier said.

Larkspur Councilmember Gabe Paulson, a member of the Transportation Authority of Marin board, said knowing the sites may have influenced the funding decision.

Anne Richman, the agency’s executive director, said staff intentionally separated the funding decision from the site selection to streamline decisions. For example, a board member might want to fund a crossing site that is not on the proposed list, complicating consensus.

That said, according to Richman, “It is the board’s discretion in April when they get the list to consider the funding as well.”

The crossing guard program has been an emotional topic over the past few years.

The Transportation Authority of Marin established a threshold of 96 crossing guards based on the available funding in 2018. Sites are selected based on pedestrian and vehicle counts, sight lines, speed limits, the history of crashes and other safety metrics.

In 2023, the board approved funding for 103 top-ranked sites because of safety concerns voiced by parents about lower-ranking crossings that weren’t going to make the funding cutoff.

Amid rising costs in 2024, the board decided to reduce the number of guarded sites back to the original 96, hoping to preserve the longevity of the program.

Marin County Supervisor Brian Colbert, a TAM board member, said he appreciated the staff’s strategy to separate the funding discussion from the sites selection.

“It just becomes incredibly acrimonious, highly emotional,” Colbert said. “Kudos to staff just to allow us to be more thoughtful about this conversation.”