Good afternoon. Please identify yourself for the record.
Yes, good afternoon. My name is Peggy Mims. I am in public relations with 3152 3/1/99 BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST./990026, 27, 28 the organization GAPS, "Grands As Parents." Also, I'm a community representative for all new beginning Head Starts, and I share a vice presidency with Julia Dansey (ph.) on Grand Central, which is a grandparent resource organization. I have a grandson here. His name is William Waddell (ph.). I am raising four grandchildren, from to 7. 11 William is constantly bothered on the 12 bus. Now, I'm not saying that sometimes William 13 does not do something; he does. But usually, 14 there's not an aide on the bus. One morning about 15 three or four weeks ago, the bus stopped in front 16 of my house and they couldn't leave for almost 17 eight minutes. There was a fight going on -- three boys jumping across the seats, kicking one young man as bad as they could, as many times as they could. He was sitting behind the bus driver. The bus driver sat there, he asked them to stop. The aide was being thrown around. I have constantly reported this. Yesterday he does his homework on the way home to keep him busy. He dropped his pencil, 3153 3/1/99 BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST./990026, 27, 28 he leaned down to get his pencil. When he leaned down, he said, Please do not kick me, I just want to pick up my pencil. The boy kicked him in the face. His face was swollen all night long. He's on the way to the doctor today. I have complained so many times about an aide not being on the bus because it's so dangerous. The children, some of them are very, very vicious. Now, I know a lot of these children have problems, but I cannot see how you do not feel that you do not need some sort of an attendant or someone on these buses. These children can be down right unruly, some of them are very, very mean, and it stems over from what's going on at home and, as the bus driver said, what's going on in school. Some of the them, by the time they get on the school bus in the morning, a lot of them have not even had breakfast, and they don't make it to breakfast in the schools because the bus has different routes to pick up. These children are unruly home. Some of them have been home all night long without a parent, and they bring this meanness to school. 3154 3/1/99 BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST./990026, 27, 28 And children that get on the bus who have had breakfast, who have a loving parent in the morning, who gets on the bus to sit down and maybe play a hand game or look at a book or something, these children are ridiculed. I feel for the bus drivers, I really do, because I feel as though they need help on the bus. Now, my grandson -- I was on my way today to the Board of Education because the Board of Education, I believe, does pay the buses -- I don't know but I was going to find out. And then Julia told me that this was going on. I thank you for giving me the forum to speak, but I do not intend to let this go. I cannot have my grandson or any of my grandchildren constantly coming home like this. I do believe that an attendant is needed, and I'm going to do everything and anything that I can to do to try to see that one is put on the bus -- with my children, anyway.
William will be 9 in June -- 3155 3/1/99 BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST./990026, 27, 28 I'm sorry, he will be 10 in June.
I only have one other child riding the bus, she's seven years old and she goes to Pratt. He goes to Kenderton, at 15th and --
On William's bus, what are the ages of the children on that bus; do you know?
They range from different ages. I think they range anywhere from 7 or 8, up to 13 and 14 years old. Now, the child that kicked him in the face goes to a school by the name of Bethune. I think he has it wrong, I'm going to get it checked out, but I think he's saying it wrong. But these children are all ages. Now, I will tell you, William is in a special ed., okay? But William knows that he must sit down on the bus, he knows this. And I've told the bus 3156 3/1/99 BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST./990026, 27, 28 driver and I also try to work with the bus driver. If William does anything on the bus, I want the bus driver to report it to me. And William uses the time for different things that he likes to do. He knows that he cannot be unruly on the bus. And like I said, you can never say what your child won't do. But this downright viciousness, it has to stop. The bus driver cannot -- this particular bus driver, he's not able to pull over, and I mean, these kids are really going at it. They're jumping across the seat. I mean, they had this boy, and they were kicking him, you know, and it was awful. And they just took the aide and was throwing her around, you know. So I have called continuously. I am -- I'm tired -- I've left two or three messages for Mr. Lombardi; I never received a call back, you know.
I'm sure he'd 3157 3/1/99 BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST./990026, 27, 28 be more than happy to talk to you.
Are there any questions or comments? (No questions.)
Thank you. Is there anyone else to testify? (Man in audience raises hand.)
Please come forward to testify. (Thomas Doyle comes forward.)
Thank you, Madam President. My name is Tom Doyle, I'm the President, of Local 1201. And I don't want to -- we've obviously heard many horror stories today, and I don't want to sit here and beat a dead horse but there's a 3158 3/1/99 BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST./990026, 27, 28 couple of things I feel I have to say, express. First thing is in regards to the issue yesterday, I just found out about that this morning from Mr. Garner; we had no intention of blindsiding the School District with that. We don't expect them to perform miracles and have something done within a matter of hours, as I'm sure probably nobody on their side was aware of that issue, but it's a reflection of what happens on the buses every day, just as the case with this young man right here. I have provided every Councilmember today with a couple of letters. One was Mr. Rosario's letter, and the other one was a letter, the results of an investigatory conference on 2/12/99.
And I highlighted on that letter -- I believe I gave the highlighted one to everybody? Yes. One has got some black-outs on it?
" That's 449 bus referral forms at one school. Those forms -- I attended this hearing. Those forms were from November until March. That's a five-month period, 449 incidents. And that's at one school. As I've said repeatedly here to the District, we don't know how many incidents are going on out there; they're being squashed at the school level, at the principal's level. As I have stated before, when we do get the information -- when the information does get to the Transportation Department Office, the Transportation Division, Mr. Lombardi's level, they respond to it, they do react to it. Our problem is, if they don't get it, nothing gets done. We believe that if you were to just multiply -- now, as I said, the 449 incidents were over a 5-month period, not the entire school year. /990026, 27, 28 incidents. Granted, a lot of them are incidents that are minor, but a lot of them are major, like this young gentleman, again, back here, who was assaulted, kicked in the face. This type of behavior goes on everywhere, every day. And I remind Council again, there's 1,000 school buses on the street every day, 1,000. We have more school buses than Pittsburgh has in its public transportation system. Many of these buses do not have attendants or school aides on them, the majority of them. This is no longer, as I've said in the past, a monetary issue; it's a safety issue. Children are being assaulted, aides are being assaulted, attendants are being assaulted, drivers are being assaulted, people are being injured. As Councilman Kenney brought up earlier, God forbid that kid was hanging out the window, touching the tires, if he had fallen and fallen underneath of those tires, there wouldn't be a discussion of 3 or $4 million; there would be a $100 million. It has to stop. It has got to stop. It's an issue that goes on and on and on. /990026, 27, 28 these incident reports from the schools. If they were to get every incident from every school, I believe from the beginning of the school year, they would be overwhelm, they would be stunned, they would be shocked by the amount of incidents. It's not, as the Board has put out in their literature before, 477 incidents for the entire school year for the entire School District in '97-'98. I have 449 on that one letter from one school, and there's 259 schools. It is not an issue of money; it's safety. I would guarantee you, the members of Greater Philadelphia First, who are putting so much pressure on the School District to cut the lowest paid people in the School District, the bus attendants, $12,900 a year, I would bet my bottom dollar that none of 'em ever rode a school bus. I'd bet my bottom dollar. I would like to see them ride a school bus now, put'em on that Mann run that nobody wants to bid on that was mentioned earlier. /990026, 27, 28 this somehow. 7 billion budget. Save the money, if they have to save money, someplace else -- not on the backs of people that make $12,595 a year; our school aides, $13,000 a year -- that's if they're at the top step, if they're at step 6. If they're at the first step, it's $10,000 a year for an aide. If it's first step for an attendant, it's $11,000 a year, $11,000 and 10,000 at the first step. And the turnover ratio for that job is high. The School District's own statistics indicate that the turnover ratio is between 8 and 10 percent a year -- we got that from one of their bean-counters turn, a turnover ratio of 8 to 10 percent a year. So the majority of these people are at the first and second step of the pay grade -- $10, $11,000 for the type of work that they do, for the situations that they're put in everyday, to be subjected to assault, harassment, threats from parents. /990026, 27, 28 have copy of, which I gave yooz before. Okay, we have another -- I could go on and on and on.
Another one that a woman showed up at the bus with her boyfriend, Don't you write my son up again, and this guy pulls the jacket aside and he's got a pistol tucked down in the belt of his pants. This is the kind of stuff that they have to put up with. It's got to stop. So we ask you, please do something somehow. Put the pressure on, whether it's here or at the School District, if you have any kind of weight with GPF, to try and influence the people over there Mr. Avery, Mr. Smoot, put pressure on them to realize that this is not a monetary issue; it's a safety issue. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any questions or comments of this witness?
Yes. Are the bus attendants covered by your union? It's my understanding that there's a no-layoff clause?
There's a clause in the contract that says that the School District has to 3164 3/1/99 BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST./990026, 27, 28 give us a one-year leeway -- if they're going to eliminate jobs, we have a one-year period where they're placed in the positions. After the one-year period, the School District no longer has responsibility for employing that person. These positions that are being cut now are not layoffs; they're doing it through attrition. And those routes that they're doing it through attrition, they don't disappear; they're being contracted out, they're going to Atlantic Express and all these other companies that pay minimum wage, 5.15 an hour. As I explained to you before at previous hearings, the bus attendants that they don't need on the buses -- or that they claim they don't need -- they fund them for Atlantic Express and the other contractors to the tune of millions of dollars, and I presented that paperwork to you the last time. They pay them $20 out, $20 back, $40 a day. They don't need (unintelligible), but they need additional bus attendants for the contractors. You can't have it both ways. Our members, they -- a lot of them are long-term employees, as you could see with Mr. 3165 3/1/99 BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST./990026, 27, 28 Garner that was here dressed in his uniform, wearing his hat, professional. And yet they come and this is what they're subjected to every day. They can't do anything with discipline. They can't put their hand on the child, God forbid. It would be termination immediately if you do anything. They get punched in the face, hit, whatever, and they have to take it and try and -- at the most, to try and restrain a child. And even then they have problems. Then we have disciplinary problems and we have to go and represent them. As he said, the word of the child will come over the employee almost every time, and we have to go down and fight for 'em. And it just -- I mean, it's one thing after another after another after another. And I just hope that somebody can give us some help, 'cause as the newspaper drivers said, drivers are crying for help, and we need it, we absolutely need. It's a very dangerous situation.
Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments? (No questions.)
Is there anyone else to testify on these bills? (No response.)
Seeing none, this will conclude public the hearing. - - - 3167 3/1/99 BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. - Pub. Hearing
We will now go into our public meeting. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Miller regarding Bill No. 990026.
Madam Chair, I move that Bill No. 990026 be reported out of committee with a favorable recommendation.
It has been moved and seconded that Bill No. 990026 be reported out of committee with a favorable recommendation. All in favor will signify by saying aye. Those opposed will say nay. The ayes have it, the motion is carried. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Miller regarding Bill No. 990027.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that Bill No. 990027 be reported 3168 3/1/99 BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. - Pub. Hearing out of committee with a favorable recommendation. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and properly seconded that Bill No. 990027 be reported out of committee with a favorable recommendation. All in favor will signify by saying aye. Those opposed? The ayes have it, the motion carries. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Miller regarding Bill No. 990028.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that Bill No. 990028 be reported out of this committee with a favorable recommendation. (Duly seconded.)
It has been moved and seconded that Bill No. 990028 be reported out of committee with a favorable recommendation. All in favor will signify by saying aye. 3169 3/1/99 BUDGET/SCHOOL DIST. - Pub. Hearing Those opposed? The ayes have it, the motion is carried. This concludes our public meeting of the three bills. Thank you. (Adjourned at 12:47 p.m.) - - - 3170 C E R T I F I C A T E I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of Tuesday, April 13, 1999, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of same. RE: COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE BILL NO.'S 990026, 990027, 990028 __________________________________, JOSEPHINE CARDILLO, Registered Professional Reporter