The corner of 68th Street and Garfield Avenue is like most other residential intersections in Wauwatosa — except from about 8 to 8:20 a.m. every school day.
During that narrow window of time in the morning, the corner becomes the province of Noah Manke, the music teacher at Washington Elementary School, who briefly shelves his treble and bass clefs for a crossing guard's handheld stop sign.
Manke is not a crossing guard, but this fall, he has been a daily presence on this corner, helping students and their parents cross 68th Street on the way to the school. His presence outside instead of in the classroom is a result of an intensifying debate over Wauwatosa School District and City of Wauwatosa policies toward crossing guards, how those guards should be staffed and which jurisdiction should oversee them.
Now, two parallel and, in some ways, competing proposals are about to be considered by the Wauwatosa Common Council as the city and school district weigh how best to ensure students across the city can safely walk to and from school. Under the proposals, the city could revise how it determines crossing guard assignments or seek to hand that responsibility over to the Wauwatosa School District.
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The council's Government Affairs Committee is scheduled to discuss the proposals at its 6:45 p.m. meeting Nov. 10 at City Hall and on Zoom. The full council will have its first chance to take up the proposals on Nov. 17.
Staffing of the crossing guards is currently overseen by city administrators, and the city's 2026 budget includes $290,000 to fund 23 positions. At the start of the school year, the city and school district were at odds over where some of those 23 crossing guards should be assigned.