Fox 4 reports that a privately held crossing guard provider won a three-year contract worth over $15.5 million as Dallas ISD takes over student transportation services from the scandal-plagued Dallas County Schools, which closes its doors next month due to “years of mismanagement.”
All City Management Services, Inc., based in Santa Fe Springs, California, was the “lowest qualified bidder” from among a total of three competing companies. The contract includes two, one-year renewal options.
Dallas County Schools, or DCS, had been providing the crossing guard service in addition to school bus transportation, but last fall local voters weighed in on a series of investigative news reports that uncovered bribes and kickbacks in return for school bus video contracts.
Founded in 1985, the family-owned All City Management said it is the nation’s largest provider of crossing guard services, with over 5,000 crossing guards, with over 200 client school districts, cities, towns, communities and schools coast-to-coast in more than 20 states.
“We are proud and excited to have the City of Dallas join our growing list of clients across the nation,” Harlan Sims, director of marketing, told School Transportation News. “The City of Dallas will be one of our largest contracts, with 400 crossing guards across multiple school districts.”
Sims explained that the company plans “to transition and retrain the current employees over the summer, while hiring new crossing guards to staff all of the intersections requested for service by the city. ACMS will begin service with the start of the fall school year in mid-August.”
Dallas city officials commented that, “Students walking to and from any elementary school—public, private or charter—will have the added protection of school crossing guards throughout the city. These locations were identified through traffic studies and analyzing pedestrian and vehicle volume.”
In particular, the private crossing guard company “will provide opportunities for current school crossing guards to be hired, provided they meet the hiring requirements. Additionally, the company will develop a School Crossing Guard Location App. To meet expectations by parents and schools, the company will operate a volunteer program focused on providing school crossing guards at intersections not shown to need one by the City’s research.”
City officials stressed that the State of Texas mandates that cities with a population larger than 850,000 provide school crossing guards.
