St Kilda Primary mourns crossing supervisor Steve Botond
St Kilda Primary pupils will have another big adjustment in store for them, with a familiar face missing as they return to school. The community is mourning after the sudden death of its beloved crossing supervisor, Steve Botond.
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When school resumes from May 26, St Kilda Primary School students will return to find their legendary school crossing supervisor no longer there with a cheery greeting.
The sudden death of their legendary crossing supervisor Steve Botond, while they have been remote learning, has seen the school community rallying to honour him.
Mr Botond, who started at the school about 15 years ago as a City of Port Phillip crossing supervisor and was the school’s groundskeeper, died suddenly from natural causes two weeks ago.
Motorists misbehaving near the school crossing would often draw his wrath.
When school principal Sue Higgins notified the school community of Mr Botond’s death, she was staggered by the immediate outpouring of sadness.
Families started to leave floral tributes, drawings and balloons near the Chapel St crossing for the man described as “a gentleman, a saint, the finest crossing supervisor a school could have, fabulous counsel and a bloody wonderful human being”.
Ms Higgins said once news broke, it went global.
“Within three hours I had received an email from London,” she said. “I was staggered by the outpouring of grief and the outpouring of love.
“Even though we are far apart it has brought us all together. I am receiving hundreds and hundreds of emails.”
She said she opened up a room at the school in which students could leave artwork.
“The humour that has come through as well as the happy memories,” Ms Higgins said.
“Steve was interested in every person who came to that crossing. He knew them all by their names.”
He knew the names of the 600 kids and even the little ones who had not started at the school.
“They knew he had a huge heart and that he protected them,” she said.
Ms Higgins said it was a tough job and Mr Botond wasn’t backwards in protecting the children, often raising the ire of careless drivers.
“He would step out in front of cars to protect the children,” she said.
Ms Higgins said there were no flashing lights at the crossing and the school had long campaigned for a safer crossing.
A number of crowd-funding initiatives have been launched, with more than $7000 raised to assist the family with funeral expenses.
More than $6000 has so far been raised for a lasting memorial.
Just what shape that might take, Ms Higgins said needed to be worked out.
“Together, as a community I have no doubt that we can help Steve’s family at this difficult time and create something beautiful to remember the man that gave so much of himself to our school,” Ms Higgins said.
She said there were some suggestions including an entrance in his name.
However, she said she was keen to wait for the children to come back so they can workshop it as a community.
Students have been drawing pictures and they have been posted on the school’s Facebook page. Tributes spoke of Mr Botond’s devotion to the school and his “fierce” protection of students as he battled the busy and erratic traffic.
Mr Botond was an early retiree who took up the crossing supervisor role to fill in his time. After stints at other crossings, he spent most of his time at the Chapel St crossing. He started helping around the school but Ms Higgins insisted he be paid as a groundskeeper.
She said his loss will become real once students begin returning from May 28.
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