SAN LEANDRO — A crossing guard program for some San Leandro schools is set to return after being axed during the summer as the city closed a $9 million budget deficit.

On Monday, the City Council approved contracts totaling about $65,000 with All City Management Services Inc. to provide crossing guard services through the end of the school year to eight elementary schools in San Leandro Unified School District, and to the three schools in San Lorenzo Unified School District that are in San Leandro.

For nearly 15 years, the city funded a larger school crossing guard program that was run by the police department. That program, which cost about $100,000 a year, was eliminated as the police department reduced its costs by 5 percent.

However, the need for crossing guards at schools remained.

"Drivers don't pay attention and sometimes the kids dart into the streets," said Sara Mestas, whose 10-year-old daughter attends Corvallis Elementary School in San Lorenzo Unified School District.

Although parents and school staff have been providing volunteer crossing guard services since the start of the school year, parents have raised safety concerns and have voiced the need for a paid crossing guard program.

Mestas, who has been volunteering as a crossing guard at Corvallis, said having parent volunteers has been hit and miss when it comes to manning the crosswalks.

"There was an expectation that they were going to be there

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all the time, but they weren't," she said. "A lot of the parents have other things to do and have not been showing up."

In August, San Leandro Unified School District officials approached City Manager Stephen Hollister proposing to share the costs for a crossing guard service.

The school district had one-time funding available, and the city had more money in its reserve fund than had been anticipated, Hollister said.

"It's an important matter," Hollister said. "The council feels that it's important enough to dip further into the reserves."

Following a September meeting of the City Council and the San Leandro Unified School District Liaison committee, the council agreed to contract with All City Management Services Inc. to provide the crossing guard services. The cost of the one-year $54,057 contract will be split by the city and San Leandro Unified.

The city will pay another $11,000 for crossing guards at the three San Lorenzo Unified schools in San Leandro.

"It just goes to show that just because your city takes something away or changes a law, that the community can come together and get it overturned," Mestas said.

Jason Sweeney covers San Leandro. Reach him at 510-293-2469.