The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted today (Sept. 15) to restore funding for crossing guard services at a number of public high schools.
The board unanimously approved a fiscal year 2026 budget carryover review package that included $707,908 in funding and 11 full-time police positions to restore coverage of 11 crossings at 10 high schools for the remainder of fiscal year 2027, which began on July 1 and will end on June 30, 2027.
The coverage at Annandale, Centreville, Chantilly, Edison, McLean, Oakton, South County, South Lakes, West Springfield and West Potomac high schools will be provided by a combination of uniformed police officers and private contractors, according to Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay.
Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity, the board’s lone Republican, joined his Democratic colleagues in voting for the funding package, despite his skepticism of some other items, “because the crossing guard issue is that important to me.”
The vote followed an over three-hour public hearing and a preceding rally outside the Fairfax County Government Center where residents pressed county leaders for a more robust commitment to transportation safety around schools.
“For far too long, this board of supervisors has been sleepwalking in their role, using bad data to make life-changing decisions. Tell them firmly and loudly: no more. No threats to our children. No more dangerous roads,” Hunter Mill District School Board Representative Melanie Meren said at the rally, which was attended by other school board members as well.
Sara Russell, a senior at South Lakes High School in Reston, told FFXnow she was attending the rally with her sister Julia, a freshman, because on the first day of school, they had a close encounter with a car that happened to be filmed. The footage was posted online by Meren.
“We’re walking home,” Sara recalled. “We wait for a safe time to cross — ”
” — except there are no safe times to cross,” Julia jumped in.
The car came close, honked, and “didn’t even wait ’til we are on the sidewalk in the middle” to keep moving, Sara recounted.
Sara, who’s walked to school for 13 years, expressed frustration with the suggestion that high school students don’t know how to safely cross the road. “We do know how to cross the street,” she said.
“Drivers don’t know how to stop,” added freshman Camille Van Evera.
Following the rally, more than 50 community members testified during a public hearing on FY 2026 carryover review, which re-allocates funds that were budgeted in the previous school year but not spent.
In August, supervisors Herrity, Walter Alcorn (Hunter Mill) and Rodney Lusk (Franconia) had proposed including $400,000 as a placeholder to potentially fund crossing guards, but Deputy County Executive Tom Arnold reported in a memo sent to the board on Friday (Sept. 11) that $707,908 would be needed.
The Fairfax County Police Department had already revived coverage at the 10 high schools on a temporary basis, pending the carryover package’s approval, after a South Lakes High School student was hit by a vehicle while walking to school on Sept. 1.
At least four other Fairfax County Public Schools students have been struck by drivers this month, including a 13-year-old from Frost Middle School who was killed in a crash while riding a bicycle near Fair City Mall in Fairfax City.
While some community members expressed thanks for the planned restoration of funding, many criticized members of the Board of Supervisors who voted earlier this year to eliminate high-school crossing guards.
Backed by supporters wearing “#NotABimbo” shirts in reference to a text that McKay accidentally sent to her in May about the then-newly approved fiscal year 2027 budget, Meren said supervisors were defending the status quo, and “the status quo endangers children.”
“I’m here to protect children, and I’m not going anywhere,” she said, complaining that supervisors had “ostracized key partners” in the safety conversation and have been unwilling to collaborate.
Other School Board members were more conciliatory.
At-large board member Kyle McDaniel, the board’s vice chair, said he believed all sides could find “practical, real solutions” on the issue.
“We’ve worked together to find immediate solutions without losing sight of the long-term goal” of a comprehensive safety plan, he said.
Standing by at-large school board members Ryan McElveen and Ilryong Moon, Mason District Representative Ricardy Anderson said she hoped all sides would approach the issue in “a spirit of partnership.”
Reading a letter on the full school board’s behalf as its legislative chair, Anderson called the return of the high school crossing guards “a constructive first step.” She also asked for permanent funding for the positions that would not be impacted by annual budget battles.
“Families deserve certainty, not coverage that shifts year to year,” she said.
A former school board member, Stuart Gibson, noted that prior to the election of school board members in the 1990s, the positions were often seen as a “wholly owned subsidiary” of the supervisors. Some supervisors still view the posts that way, suggested Gibson, who spent 16 years representing Hunter Mill District on the school board.
A number of speakers wondered why supervisors had let the issue fester over what was, comparatively speaking, a small budget amount.
“This is a colossal waste of everyone’s time that we need to be here,” parent Valisha Jackson said. “This is a shock to no one that you were going to get this kind of community response.”
Jackson said elected officials had become complacent and were delivering “campaign speeches” rather than crafting solutions.
She also wondered why board members continued with other parts of the meeting that could have been delayed, leaving those waiting to speak on the issue to wait.
“It’s unacceptable that we’ve been sitting here this long,” Jackson said.
Roberto de Moraes, a parent, called it a “pittance of money” and said crossing guards serve a dual purpose.
In addition to serving as a protector for students and others, de Moraes said crossing guards represent “a welcoming face” who are often the first to greet students when they arrive at school.
‘Working group’ to tackle broader safety issues
Before the funding vote, the Board of Supervisors voted 10-0 to set up a joint working group intended to improve collaboration between their body and the School Board on transportation safety issues around schools.
Sully District Supervisor Kathy Smith, the board’s vice chair, and Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman will represent the county government, with two school board members to be appointed by Chair Robyn Lady. Representatives from the Virginia Department of Transportation, Fairfax County Department of Transportation and the county’s General Assembly delegation are also expected to participate.
The group will be tasked with coming back in time for proposals to be considered as part of the county’s fiscal year 2028 budget discussions next spring.
“Collaboration and coordination are needed,” said McKay, who proposed creation of the working group.
“This is a complicated issue,” McKay said, noting that the county’s ability to implement infrastructure changes is limited by the Virginia Department of Transportation’s ownership of most of its roads.
“These things, unfortunately, when you have to go get permission from the state, take a while, and so, the deliberate engagement in this task force of the Virginia Department of Transportation, as well as our partners on the school board, is a really important part of the conversation,” he added.
Supervisors said the working group would explore a wide range of transportation safety measures, including recommendations from a Safe Routes to Schools assessment that identified kiss-and-ride congestion as a significant concern.
“We have tools. We need to see if there are more tools,” Smith said.
“Crossing guards are a symptom of a much broader issue,” Braddock District Supervisor Sizemore Heizer said, noting that the county’s population growth and increasing urbanization have required roads to be “retrofit … to be multimodal in the way that serves that reality.”
Sizemore Heizer stressed the “shared responsibility” that everyone in the community has to make local roads safer, though her assertion that “we’re all to blame” for recent tragedies drew some angry grumbles from the crowd.
“I believe the staff on both the board of supervisors and the schools care very much about student pedestrian traffic safety,” Sizemore Heizer said, speaking as a former school board member who was elected to the Board of Supervisors in December. “None of us want to see our students getting hurt. None of us want to see our adults getting hurt.”
During the discussion, Herrity and Lusk each said the board wouldn’t be in the current situation with the crossing guards had it not approved the $1.89 million budget cut.
“We need to take responsibility too for the things that we’ve done,” said Lusk, who voiced concerns about the cuts when they were discussed at a budget markup session on April 28.
The markup package was approved 8-2, with Herrity and Alcorn opposing. The Hunter Mill District supervisor joined the rest of his Democratic colleagues on the board in voting to formally adopt the FY 2027 budget on May 5.
Bierman said he hoped the working group would work cohesively toward safety improvements.
“We need to be talking together about the things we need,” he said. “It is a shared responsibility.”
