Douglas Gephart, Fremont Unified School District superintendent, said it is not likely the school district will consider using volunteer crossing guards as suggested by Fremont City Councilman Steve Cho during an April 22 council meeting.

At a May 5 joint meeting of the school district and city council, Gephart explained there are safety and liability issues with using volunteers as opposed to the paid contractors who are in place.

"What we're talking about here are busy intersections several blocks away from the schools with three lanes in each direction," he said. "Even though there are signals at many of these intersections, we still need trained guards to help kids cross the street. We can't just turn it over to volunteers because it becomes a safety and liability issue."

Cho suggested last month to use volunteer crossing guards at school sites rather than enter into a $161,233 contract with Los Angeles-based All City Management Services to recruit and train them.

Cho's intention was to give that contract money to the school district to partner in a volunteer crossing guard program.

Fremont police Lt. Tom Mikkelsen said finding volunteers is easier said than done.

"It's very difficult to find a volunteer or even a paid person to stand at an intersection 200 days a year, twice a day, rain or shine," he said. "If someone doesn't show up to one of the intersections, we have to pull an officer off the street or leave it vacant and that's a serious public safety issue."

Mikkelsen added because many residents work during school hours, if the police department were to consider using volunteers it would need to look at Fremont's senior citizen population, which he said depletes the volunteer pool further.

Volunteer crossing guards at 17 locations identified by the district and police department would accrue 11,400 hours a year, according to Mikkelsen. He added that time is more than all the hours the department's current volunteers worked in 2007.

Mikkelsen said before the city began contracting with All City Management Services in 2001, two community service officers managed the crossing guard program.

These officers recruited and trained crossing guards, as well as performed several background checks on each one. Mikkelsen said the work was too overwhelming for just two officers, and the city decided to contract the service out.

But Cho stood by his convictions, saying he was only trying to relieve the district of a financial burden by offering the volunteer program.

"I still believe there are people out there with time to dedicate," he said. "Even if they come out for a small amount of time, it would be a benefit to schools."

While she understood Cho's intentions to help the district, Board of Education trustee Lara York agreed with Mikkelsen that it is nearly impossible to find volunteers, both in front of campuses and five blocks away.

"We have schools struggling right now to get volunteer crossing guards right out in front of the schools," she said.

The city council is scheduled to review and possibly vote on the contract with All City Management Services later this month.