The town of Highland Park along with the Highland Park Police Department is looking to privatize the school crossing guards. The Boro Council will be introducing it as a resolution in the agenda asking for bids from private companies. After bidding, a resolution to accept a bid will follow well as a public comment period. Once a bid is accepted, the town will enter into a contract with the private company and the current crossing guards will lose their jobs unless they are rehired by the private company.

Currently the Highland Park Police Department and the town are looking at Crossing Guard Services LLC from Stamford CT. This company has only been around for 1 year. They filed a LLC in Florida in September 2022 and officially started in January 2023 which means they have no proven track record of public safety. Crossing Guard Services LLC guarantees that they can keep all crossing guard posts filled by using a combination of crossing guards from out of town, police and parent volunteers. They are not a union company. Their postings on Indeed for NJ show that they pay only $16.50/hr with no benefits. Crossing Guard Services LLC says they will help towns save money while providing crossing guards. However when Crossing Guard Services LLC placed a bid in Edison NJ last summer, it was for $900,000 annually which was $100,000 more than what Edison was already paying for crossing guards (Edison pays $600,000 annually for 43 crossing guards plus $200,000 annually for police to cover unstaffed posts). How is charging $100,000 more saving money? It's not. The people of Edison and the Edison Township Council ultimately rejected the bid from Crossing Guard Services LLC last August and decided to keep their crossing guards local with a pay raise.

Now is the time to take action and let Highland Park Borough officials and the Highland Park Police Department know that you don't want the school crossing guards to be privatized BEFORE it happens. No one wants to lose their favorite crossing guards in town that their children know and love to be replaced with a constant churn of new people that aren't local to the community.