The Honolulu Police Department's perennial shortage of crossing guards has worsened this year and may force many public schools to open without one.

Koko Head Elementary School will begin classes tomorrow without a guard, something that principal Cecilia Lum said the campus has done before, including last year.

Lum said she has been pleading for help from HPD.

"The same request is in: We don't have a person; can you please help us find someone," she said.

The unexpected loss of nearly two dozen crossing guards — some failed their physicals and others decided not to return — gives HPD just 83 guards with four weeks to go until all public schools are in session, and dozens starting classes this week and next, said Sgt. Kevin Oshiro, program coordinator.

In recent years, HPD has typically been further along in hiring, with more than 100 guards in place a few weeks before start of school. Police have requested 150 positions, but officials were unable to estimate the total number of positions that will be funded. The department is scrambling to hire more guards, and Oshiro is hopeful that enough can be found.

"At this point we're pushing to not have any schools go without," he said.

Oshiro said that some of the available guards will have to be transferred to the schools that need them most, like those along Farrington and Kamehameha highways where traffic can be treacherous.

Oshiro said officials are trying to avoid the appearance of favoring certain schools. Schools are prioritized for their need of crossing guards by child pedestrian traffic, vehicular traffic and how dangerous the roads are on a scale of 1 to 10, according to HPD.

Lum said a guard at her school is necessary.

"This traffic is terrible," she said, referring to the busy area around her school on Lunalilo Home Road at Kalaniana'ole Highway. "People go racing up and down the street because people are late for work or they are trying to make that red light."

When schools are left without a crossing guard, officials have to turn to other options.

Last year, Lum was forced to send educational assistants and office clerks to help students cross Lunalilo Home Road. If no one was available, she would sometimes take to the streets herself.

"I just don't want anything to happen to anyone," Lum said.

"We were without one for a while and this parent came to our rescue," said Michael Miyamura, principal of Kapolei Elementary. The school's current crossing guard — a parent — volunteered for the position after the previous guard quit last year.

"It's spooky out there because the cars aren't doing 25 (miles per hour); they're going faster than that," Miyamura said. The school normally has two crossing guards but began this year with only one. The second is in the process of being rehired by HPD.

Other schools that may be forced to open without a guard include August Ahrens Elementary in Waipahu and Nimitz Elementary, officials from both schools said. Both open within the next week.

Sgt. Stan Imaino, school crossing guard coordinator on the Big Island, said his department has 11 vacancies out of a total of 39 positions. The Big Island normally deals with a perennial shortage of about eight to 10 guards, Imaino said.

Phone calls to the Maui and Kaua'i police departments seeking information on the status of their crossing guard programs were not returned.

The crossing guard program on O'ahu, administered by HPD, is one of the most critical public safety measures available to schools.

Ilona Kaonohi has been helping 'Ewa Elementary School students cross Renton Road for four years and can attest to the importance of the job.

"The kids and their parents are ready to cross and the cars just come right across my stop sign. There have been too many close calls," said Kaonohi, who applied for the job as a concerned mother and resident.

Many schools also have student crossing guards — junior police officers — to help keep other students safe.

"It's the biggest reason we don't have major collisions at schools — can you imagine it without JPOs?" Oshiro said.

HPD is asking schools to find potential crossing guards in their community or possibly within their own staff. Office aides, teachers or even janitors could be asked to put in an hour before and after school to guide children safely across school zones, Oshiro said.

Low pay and awkward hours are the reasons most often cited for the inability to find enough crossing guards.

An hourly wage of $10.73 with a split shift of two hours a day is not an enticing job, Oshiro said.

"Most of the people who are doing it are doing it because they want to help students get to and from school safely. Most aren't doing it for the pay," he said.