By Mary O’KEEFE

The Los Angeles County board of supervisors approved the adoption of a revised warrant for assigning an adult crossing guard to include school crossings servicing middle schools in the unincorporated county jurisdiction. The decision paves the way for unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County to hire a crossing guard for middle school children upon the request of residents.
Testifying at this morning’s board of supervisors meeting were Cynthia Livingston, principal of Rosemont Middle School, Robbyn Battles, president of the Crescenta Valley Town Council, and parents Michele Doud and Kelly Ralston. Following the decision, all thanked Supervisor Antonovich and his staff for listening to their concerns and taking them seriously.
A crossing guard was temporarily placed at Rosemont Middle School and has been working there for about a year. His pilot program was nearing its end when parents, school staff and the CVTC began requesting letters from the community is support of their efforts and sharing their opinion on traffic safety.
“I received over 1,000 letters from Crescenta Valley residents [in favor of this revised warrant],” said Antonovich.
Also in attendance at the meeting was Scott Anderle, assistant director of Student Support Services for the school district. He joined the parents, Livingston and Battles in saying they were “ecstatic” over the decision.
The decision is the end of an almost five-year battle to have the right to petition for a crossing guard at the middle school level.
“This goes beyond Crescenta Valley because this ruling effects all unincorporated county residents,” said Battles.
“We didn’t just care about our children, but we cared about all children,” said Doud.

 For the full story, see the Thursday, March 6 edition of the CV Weekly.