Students across Wauwatosa are heading back to class the week after Tuesday, and at least four elementary schools will do so without a single crossing guard posted on their property. Underwood, Jefferson, McKinley and Roosevelt elementary schools have each lost their on-site guard assignments for the 2026-27 school year, part of a citywide reshuffling of the 23 crossing guard posts the city deploys at intersections around town.
The changes were first detailed by Tosa Forward News, which reported that Underwood Elementary will have no crossing guard anywhere in its neighborhood this year after previously having one stationed at 113th Street and Potter Road. Jefferson, McKinley and Roosevelt each had at least one guard within a block or two of their buildings last year, according to the same report by reporter David Paulsen, but none of the three will have a guard assigned directly on school property this fall.
Washington Elementary School is losing ground too, even though it isn't left completely without coverage. The school will lose its crossing guard assignment at 68th Street and Garfield Avenue, per Tosa Forward News, and its closest remaining guard will now be a block away from the building. Washington will still retain two crossing guards in its east-side neighborhood, with guards stationed at 68th Street at Lloyd Street and at Milwaukee Avenue.
Where the City Is Adding Coverage Instead
The city isn't simply cutting positions — it's moving them. Wauwatosa plans to double up crossing guards at two busy Wauwatosa Avenue intersections, and McKinley students will keep a guard at North Avenue and 90th Street even as the city stops staffing the crossing at North Avenue and 88th Street. The city typically assigns crossing guards to intersections next to elementary schools and other crossings along common school routes, and it pays a contractor, All City Management Services, to hire and deploy the guards who work the posts.
That contractor recruits crossing guards for two hours of duty on school days at $19.25 an hour for the 2026-27 school year, according to job postings reviewed by ZipRecruiter. Wisconsin law gives municipal governing bodies the statutory authority to appoint the guards in the first place — under Wisconsin Statute § 349.215, guards near schools can stop traffic, and § 346.46(2m) requires drivers to stop between 10 and 30 feet away when a guard signals.
Some parents have raised safety concerns about the revised assignments, according to the Tosa Forward News report. Crossing guards assist public and private school students during both morning and afternoon commutes, and the loss of on-site coverage lands at schools where families have grown accustomed to a guard stationed right outside the building rather than a block or more away.
A Familiar Budget Squeeze
This isn't the first time Wauwatosa has trimmed its crossing guard program. The city eliminated six guard posts in January 2020 — including busy crossings at Mayfair Road and Center Street — due to budget constraints, restricting guard assignments strictly to elementary students, as CBS 58 reported at the time. That earlier round of cuts drew similar pushback from local parent-teacher associations.
The pressure has continued in more recent budget cycles. Wauwatosa's 2025 and 2026 municipal executive budgets highlighted multi-year fiscal challenges that forced administrators to eliminate staff positions and reduce service levels across several departments, per reporting from Onward Tosa. Property tax caps and rising costs have squeezed the city's operating funds, pushing officials to reassign existing crossing guard posts rather than add new ones.
To decide where those posts go, the city and the Wauwatosa School District jointly run a Safe Routes to School initiative that uses GIS mapping to evaluate student walking routes and recommend crossing guard placements, according to the City of Wauwatosa. That data-driven approach is how officials arrived at prioritizing corridors like Wauwatosa Avenue for doubled-up coverage while stripping guard presence from in front of schools like Underwood and Washington.
Rising Pedestrian Risk Statewide and Close to Home
The reshuffling comes as pedestrian safety concerns have intensified locally and across the state. In May, a student was struck by a motor vehicle in a high-pedestrian traffic zone near Wauwatosa East High School and Lincoln Elementary School, a crash that prompted district officials to urge extra caution in school zones, CBS 58 reported.
Community sensitivity around Wauwatosa crosswalks has also been shaped by the 2024 crash that killed a 93-year-old priest crossing Wisconsin Avenue. The driver received a felony sentence in March, and the city responded by installing quick-build curb extensions to shorten pedestrian crossing distances, as Hoodline previously reported.
Statewide, the trend lines are troubling. Wisconsin Department of Transportation traffic safety data analyzed this month showed a 45 percent increase in pedestrian crashes in regional statistical areas compared to prior three-year averages, prompting trauma care doctors to warn of back-to-school traffic dangers, according to The Monroe Times. Separate state crash data show pedestrian collisions involving children peak on weekdays between 3 and 6 p.m., directly overlapping with afternoon school dismissals and peak commute hours.
The stakes for Wauwatosa families are significant given how many students rely on walking to get to class. Parent surveys compiled through the district's Safe Routes to School program indicate roughly 25 percent of all elementary students in the Wauwatosa School District regularly walk to school, according to the Groth Law Firm. As students settle back into their routines this week, that gap between the city's route-mapping criteria and parents' expectations of a guard stationed right outside the schoolhouse door remains the central friction point heading into the new year.
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