General News
20 December, 2025
Some things are worth keeping
FOR a while there, it looked as though a familiar part of the school-day routine in Stawell might quietly disappear. The school crossing supervisors on Cooper Street and Barnes Street, the people with the stop signs, the hi-vis vests and the watchful eyes, were slated to be withdrawn at the end of the 2025 school year. The recommendation came before Northern Grampians Shire councillors at an unscheduled meeting on Friday afternoon, following months of technical assessments, safety audits and budget modelling. But after weighing the numbers against the voices of the community, councillors chose a different path.
Instead of endorsing the officer recommendation to withdraw the service, councillors voted to retain the supervised crossings at both Stawell Primary School and Stawell West Primary School, keeping the crossings in place beyond 2025.
A report presented by Trenton Fithall, council’s Director Infrastructure and Amenity, made it clear the decision was not a simple one.
Safety assessments found traffic and pedestrian volumes at both sites did not meet the state’s funding warrants for supervised crossings, and significant infrastructure upgrades, including improved signage, speed treatments, raised crossings and roundabouts, were either complete or nearing completion.
From a technical standpoint, the report concluded the crossings could safely operate without supervisors once those works were finished.
But the report also acknowledged something spreadsheets cannot easily measure: the value crossing supervisors add to school communities.
The financial implications of keeping the service were laid out plainly.
If council could recruit staff internally, the cost of retaining the two crossings in 2026/27 would be about $38,000, or $19,000 per crossing.
Over the longer term, the overall additional impact on council’s Long-Term Financial Plan was estimated at approximately $436,000.
The report also posed a broader question about who should ultimately be responsible for providing supervised school crossings when communities want them, but funding frameworks and legislation do not require councils to do so.
Mayor Karen Hyslop said the decision followed extensive discussion and careful consideration.
“The Department of Transport and Planning took over the service until September 2023, when it informed council it would no longer provide school crossing supervisors at sites along Cooper and Barnes streets, as the roads were not the department’s responsibility,” Cr Hyslop said.
“In response, council made the decision in December of that year to fund the school crossing supervisors temporarily, despite not having the forecasted budget to do so,” she said.
“Council was already focused on improving road safety around both affected school sites. We have invested in safety treatments such as roundabouts, pedestrian crossings and improved carparking to ensure areas around schools are safe for children and parents, with the aim of eventually withdrawing from school crossing services.”
Cr Hyslop said councillors and staff had spent significant time examining the issue from every angle, including conversations with school leaders, parents and community members, and listening carefully to concerns raised during consultation.
She said feedback highlighted risks to vulnerable children, concerns about trucks and traffic speeds, pressure on teachers during busy pick-up and drop-off periods, and a lack of time for families to adjust to the change.
“There has been quite a bit of input from the community and school representatives and councillors have carefully considered whether or not to retain the service or continue to withdraw from the service as planned,” Cr Hyslop said.
“Despite no legal requirement obligating local governments to provide school crossing supervisors and not meeting eligibility requirements for State Government funding, council believes it is in the best interest of our children to continue to provide the crossing supervision service.
“Our children are precious, and we need to do everything we can to keep them safe.”
The decision was welcomed by school communities, where crossing supervisors are seen as more than traffic controllers.
They are a familiar face at the start and end of the school day, offering reassurance to parents, support to children learning to navigate roads, and an extra set of eyes during busy periods.
Council says it will continue to complete planned road safety upgrades around both schools as part of a broader, long-term approach to traffic management.
For now, though, the message from the council chamber was a simple one.
When it came time to choose between a line in a budget and the comfort of families walking their children to school, councillors decided the crossings — and the people standing in them — were worth keeping.
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