School Buses

Philadelphia Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman promised parents Wednesday that her administration would immediately tackle widespread problems of erratic and late school buses. A mother from the Sankofa Freedom Academy charter school in Frankford told the School Reform Commission at its regular meeting about poor service provided by a district-contracted bus company. Ackerman directed the woman to call her office Monday if problems remained. Ackerman said she had heard similar transportation complaints from parents across the city at her first parents roundtable Tuesday night.

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.

Got school bus? That could be the new refrain if a bill allowing New Jersey school districts to raise money by selling bus advertising moves successfully through the Legislature. The bipartisan measure, advanced Thursday by the Assembly Education Committee, would allow districts to sell ad space on the outside of buses they own or lease. The bill does not address bus service that has been outsourced, though committee members expressed interest in extending the measure to transportation contractors if the idea proves successful.

It was the block party of all block parties at the Philadelphia School District on Friday - a 10-hour event that drew thousands of people. Its purpose was to get students and their parents prepared for the Sept. 7 start of the school year. "We're trying to get everybody into the spirit of back to school and focus our energies on coming together as a family," Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said at the second annual event, at the district's Education Center on North Broad Street. More than 60 tables had informational packets and promotional items such as pens, pencils and tote bags from organizations that partner with and support the district, such as the Department of Behavioral Health, Salus University, Wachovia Bank, Mothers in Charge, NASA, and Ronald McDonald Dental Health Services.

Upper Merion police were investigating a report of a man seen exiting a home carrying a BB gun near the Caley Elementary School in King of Prussia, authorities said. The 1 p.m. sighting on Regimental Road prompted police to ask that pupils remain indoors as a precaution while officers conducted their investigation, according to a statement by spokesperson Kathryn Ashbridge posted on the Upper Merion Area School District's website. No BBs were fired, a police dispatcher in Upper Merion said.

As Thursday's snowstorm rolled across Northeast Pennsylvania, it began to wreak havoc on a ski trip for 57 students from Calvary Christian Academy in Philadelphia. At the Elk Mountain Ski Resort, north of Scranton, one boy broke a collarbone and two girls also hurt themselves. It was time to get off the mountain, the seven adult chaperones decided. But as they tried to drive back on hilly Route 374 to their lodge, one of their two buses skidded off the road and into a ditch.

WHEN SCHOOL buses idle for longer than a few minutes, there is a potential risk of pollution being spewed around the neighborhood and schools. This goes for other vehicles or diesel trucks dropping off food for the school cafeteria. For children, health experts state that diesel exhaust presents a serious health concern, especially in asthmatics, and can trigger an attack. Idling trucks or cars may not seem like a huge concern, but the Environmental Defense Fund states that they put 130,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 940 tons of carbon monoxide into the atmosphere each year.

A North Philadelphia teenager has surrendered in connection with a shooting that critically wounded a 16-year-old student outside a Feltonville school. Accompanied by his mother, Anthony McDaniels, 17, of the 700 block of West Oxford Street in the Ludlow section, turned himself in to police Tuesday night. He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated assault, and related offenses. McDaniels was charged as an adult, police said. The gunman was still being sought, and the motive was unknown, they said.

A teenager was shot twice in the head, once in the left chest, and once in the back by another teen yesterday outside a disciplinary school in Feltonville shortly after dismissal time. Initial information was sketchy, but this much was known: The victim was a 16-year-old 10th grader at CEP-Hunting Park, 4224 Front St. He was shot after a brief confrontation with several youths about 3:45 p.m., shortly after classes had let out and school buses were being boarded. His attacker used a 9mm pistol and escaped by running through nearby Greenmount Cemetery.

Less than three days after two men were charged with setting some of the 24 fires in Coatesville this year, Chester County's Arson Task Force was back at work investigating an arson early yesterday that damaged seven school buses in nearby West Brandywine Township. The 3 a.m. fire caused $400,000 in damage to seven buses parked near North Brandywine Middle School off Reeceville Road, said John Hageman, spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.