POTTSTOWN >> If borough council votes to privatize the borough’s crossing guards next month, those currently working would be guaranteed jobs and “at least their current salary.”
That’s what Borough Manager Mark Flanders told a joint meeting of the school board and borough council, held Tuesday night at the Montgomery County Community College’s Sustainability and Innovation Center at 140 College Drive.
He was answering questions raised by Councilman Dennis Arms, who is also a teacher in the school district.
At its June 13 meeting, council held off on a proposal to have all crossing guards employed and managed by All City Management Services, a California company, after Arms said the guards had not been informed – a contention denied by Flanders and Police Chief Rick Drumheller.
According to the job description on the borough website, the current crossing guard salary is $19.38 per hour with “up to 1.75 hours per school day.”
Although the borough hires and manages the crossing guards, it is the Pottstown School District which pays their salaries.
The 2016 budget lists the cost for crossing guard salaries at $154,559 and that is the money that the school district has been paying.
However, Flanders informed The Mercury that in the first quarter of the year, the Pottstown Police Department undertook an audit and realized there are other costs related to the guards that the district was not paying.
“The internal audit revealed that historically we have been billing the (school district) for salary only (the budgeted amount) and not billing for the real costs – salary plus FICA, Medicare, Workers Comp Insurance, equipment, administrative costs, the cost when an officer or parking enforcement officer fills in, etc. The total actual cost for the borough to provide crossing guard services for the 2015/2016 school year is estimated at approximately $270,000.”
Given that the proposed contract with ACMS is “not to exceed” $247,000, that means a $23,000 savings for taxpayers.
That money will actually be saved by the school district since, without the contract, the borough was going to begin charging the school district the bull $270,000 annual cost for the crossing guards.
He said the company, which is a one-year contract with renewal options, will be obligated to provide substitutes when a guard calls out sick.
If police have to fill the vacancy – which Flanders says is a weekly occurrence – not only will the company not charge for the service that day, but is also subject to a fine, he said.
