While that's down from the 170 crossing guard positions two years ago, it's a 17 percent improvement on the 115 budgeted at the start of last school year. Police say they will assign patrol officers to dangerous crosswalks if necessary.

The crossing-guard program, administered by the HPD, is a key component in public school safety measures, and partial restoration of last year's cuts is sure to bring a sigh of relief to concerned parents and school officials.

Carolyn Petelo, a general aide at Waipahu Elementary School, said crossing guards are desperately needed because drivers often pay little attention to children trying to cross the road.

"Most of the cars here, they just turn, they try to beat the light and they don't think the kids are already stepping off the curb," she said.

The school opened the year last week without a crossing guard. Until the school's request can be filled, Petelo is filling in.

But even at schools with crossing guards, caution is still called for, police warn.

Petelo can attest to that.

She has been doing crossing guard duty with the help of a few Junior Police Officers and noted that cars speed despite her presence. She said she has almost been hit while holding her stop sign in the intersection of Waipahu Street and Waikele Road.

"It's very, very dangerous," she said.

As in previous years, police will try to slow motorists in school zones by stationing patrol officers near schools at the beginning of the year.

"We definitely try to put the word out early on and get the public conditioned to obeying the law," Miller said.

Even with the police efforts, however, "There is always a certain element of the public that is not as mindful of the reduced speeds that exist in our school zones," Miller said.

For that reason, police advise parents to make sure their children know how to get to and from school safely, whether they walk, ride their bikes or catch the bus.

Although there were 170 crossing guards two years ago, HPD Traffic Capt. Jose Gaytan said the 135 this year should be enough to get a crossing guard to every school that has requested one. "As long as a school wants a monitor, we'll try to accommodate them," he said.

The issue came to a head when significant cuts to the program's budget forced police to eliminate 55 crossing guard positions at the beginning of last year. By the end of the year, however, all schools that requested a guard had one, police said.

"We moved heaven and earth (to come up with financing) until all the schools were given the monitors they requested," Gaytan said.

Crossing guards can make a big difference.

Kapolei Elementary School principal Michael Miyamura considers himself lucky to have two crossing guards, one on each end of Kama'ala Loop, a busy four-lane road.

Since many of his students have to cross Kama'ala to get to the school, he urges them to walk the extra block or so to get to one of the guards.

"As long as kids cross at the crossing guard, it's safer," Miyamura said.

This comes from a man who is aware of the dangers of crossing the street to school. He has had to rush outside to check on accidents because a child crossed somewhere else and got hit or brushed by a car.

"In the morning, it is very difficult to see because of the sun in drivers' eyes as they are heading toward Kapolei Middle," he said.

Sometimes drivers are speeding. "We have people that are in a rush and they need to be aware that there are children crossing the street and take a few extra minutes to get ready earlier, and start earlier so they can slow down, especially as they get close to the school," he said.

But drivers still rush through school zones in the afternoon, said JPO Nai Tonga, a sixth-grader at Waipahu who helps Petelo in her crossing guard duties.

After two years as a JPO, Tonga knows how important the job is, especially since other students might not pay attention to the lights and dart into the street.

He doesn't expect drivers to stop to let the students cross. "They don't really care about us," Tonga said.

As if to illustrate his point, minutes later, a driver ignored Tonga's stop sign, drove into the crosswalk and disappeared around the corner without a pause.