PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia School District’s fifth annual back-to-school bus tour hit the road Monday, providing students with supplies and immunizations for the start of classes on Aug. 25.
The tour will make seven stops around the city over the next three weeks, offering free backpacks and other essentials.
Sixth-grader Gabrielle was hoping to check off items on her school supply list at the tour’s first stop at the School of the Future in Parkside.
“Maybe a book bag or something like that,” she said.
Gabrielle’s mother, Felecia Myers, appreciated the free supplies. “I wouldn’t get by if they didn’t do this,” Myers told KYW Newsradio. “If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know what I would do.”
The tour is sponsored by the Independence Blue Cross Foundation, which committed nearly $75,000 to support the bus tour, said foundation President Rev. Dr. Lorina Marshall-Blake.
“You’re talking about almost $75,000 that we do. Then Independence does $25,000, so that’s over $100,000 every year that goes towards this project,” Marshall-Blake told KYW Newsradio. “It is the fifth year that we have done it. And if not us, then who?”
While the tour continues, administrators will meet with SEPTA this week to work through the effects of possible service cuts scheduled to begin one day before school starts.
“We’ll be meeting with parents, principals, and others to make sure we understand the impact of any SEPTA changes,” said Superintendent Tony Watlington. “We want to make sure that we have high student attendance this year. And we’re going to do everything we can to work together and be as creative as we possibly can.”
The push for a state budget solution to address education and mass transit funding continues, School Board President Reginald Streater told KYW Newsradio.
“Dr. Watlington and the district are doing what they need to do to at least make the case that in addition to adequate funding, we need to make sure that our babies can get back and forth to school,” Streater said.