Lehighton hopes to retain its crossing guards, as details on a new agreement continue to be ironed out.

Mayor Ryan Saunders said at last week’s borough council meeting that he attended the Lehighton Area School Board meeting to discuss the crossing guard issue.

Saunders told borough council that the school district will look to take over 100% of the financial responsibility, while the borough’s contribution is that it will continue to have its police department administer its functionality.

Saunders said he was scheduled to meet with Lehighton Area School District Superintendent Jason Moser last week and that he would report back to borough council at next month’s meeting.

Borough police Chief Troy Abelovsky said the big question is if they’re going to stay on as crossing guards due to their current rate of pay.

After the meeting, Saunders said the next step is for some sort of document to be presented to the school board for it to vote on.

“When I presented it at last week’s school board meeting, it was basically unanimous that all board members agreed this was probably the right thing to do and they should,” Saunders said.

Saunders said the crossing guards would essentially be employees of the school district.

“The pay increase is a huge component of this agreement,” he said. “The (LASD) superintendent and I discussed potentially a multiyear agreement with predetermined pay increases along the way so that it doesn’t get forgotten in the future.

“A big part of the conversation is to see how much we can get for the crossing guards; they are obviously due an increase. They haven’t had one for several years. And the school district does understand that it’s imperative that the crossing guards get a fair wage, and it is everybody’s intention to make sure they get a pay increase in this agreement, along with predetermined increases over the span of a multiyear agreement.

“I think that will be a better feeling for them moving forward.”

Saunders said the plan in meeting with Moser is “for him and I to come up with a rough draft of an agreement to present to the school board, and I’m going to do the best that I can to make sure that this agreement is all inclusive to the best that I can possibly ensure in hopes that we only need one draft to present to the school board and get this done quickly. “I’m hoping to have whatever draft that him and I come up with presented at the school board’s Feb. 24 meeting so that we could potentially have it voted on in that Feb. 24 meeting.”

Saunders stressed, “It’s an imperative function, and we need to take care of them to ensure the safety of our children that don’t have the convenience of a bus.”

The current pay rate for crossing guards is $10 per hour, and costs are shared between the school district and the borough, with the district covering 60% and the borough covering 40%.

Moser estimated the total cost for crossing guards is about $65,000.

Saunders emphasized at that meeting the importance of increasing wages to retain crossing guards, and told the school board that if they don’t do something within the next month or so, they could stand to lose at least one guard for sure, and two more potentially.

Saunders noted at that time that other districts offer higher wages, making it difficult to compete for staff. Palmerton Area School District pays guards $10 per shift, amounting to $20 per day for an hour of work.

He said at that time the goal is to ensure the safety of students, which it plans to continue to do, but added it only has so many officers on duty at those times, as police officers sometimes have to cover crossing guard duties when positions go unfilled.

The school board discussed options for increasing pay, and whether the district should assume a larger portion of the cost.