Tardy school buses are driving some Philadelphia parents crazy

A mother who testified before the School Reform Commission yesterday said that she's fed up with the service provided by the bus company contracted to pick up her kids.

Drivers are often late and sometimes don't show up at all, said Kennesha Bell, one of two people who spoke about the issue.

Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said that several parents at a meeting earlier this week also complained about their children's bus routes.

She promised to intervene.

"My office is now paying close attention to fixing these bus routes," she said to Bell, "because I heard this over and over and over again from parents - not only about your bus route, but other bus routes."

Bell said that almost every day since the school year began, kids who ride Bus 7568 have been dropped off at sites other than their scheduled bus stop, at Castor Avenue near Cottman.

She said that drivers often ignore the scheduled pickup time, 7:56 a.m., and that students arrive at Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School, on Paul Street near Ruan in Frankford, after the bell has rung at 8:15 a.m.

Bell said that she's even had to leave her job and drive other children who were stranded at the bus stop.

"The one thing that this bus company has been consistent with is lateness," she said.

John Lombardi, administrator for the district's transportation services, said that he assigned a supervisor to follow the bus route yesterday morning and noted that children were picked up later than they should have been.

Texas-based Durham School Services, which services most of the 800 bus routes that transport city kids and has nearly 100 drivers, is aware of the issue and will revise the bus route by Monday, Lombardi said.

He added that the problem is caused by the changing number of children who ride the bus each day.

"In the beginning of the year, there are many revisions to bus routes," he said. "Not to make excuses, but that's the reality of the business we're in."

Lombardi said that drivers who drop kids off at school more than 15 minutes late are penalized.

Durham, the nation's second-largest student-transportation provider, has had a contract with the district for 10 years. It expires in June.

In other SRC news:

* Board members are slated to vote on a contract worth roughly $9 million to install surveillance equipment at 19 of the district's most violent schools.

The equipment would be installed at the campuses designated by the state this year as persistently dangerous. The move is an an effort to improve climate and safety at those schools, according to the SRC resolution.