North Penn School District officials held an information session Monday evening at the district's Educational Services Center to talk to parents about the changes the district had made so far and to hear about the issues parents were having with the current busing schedule.

LANSDALE – More than 100 irate parents packed a meeting on Monday with North Penn School District officials demanding that the district fix the problems their children have encountered since the school year began.
Private school and special education students bused outside the district have had long rides, late buses or no buses since North Penn partnered with four other districts in a transportation consortium to reduce busing costs. Officials were extremely apologetic and promised to fix the problems but parents remained exasperated. Read Full Story.

During the meeting, Dietrich asked parents to be patient as the district reconfigured the bus routes. Later the district posted Dietrich's opening remarks on its website.North Penn Superintendent Curtis Dietrich's open remarks regarding transportationParents addressed Dietrich, Director of Business Administration Robert Schoch, and members of the school board and the county transportation consortium telling stories of how their child had been late to school or had even taken the wrong bus and gotten lost.

One couple told officials that their child had been lost for over an hour after the student got on the wrong bus after her first day of school in 2009. After the incident, the parents had to buy a cell phone for the 5-year-old.

Parents posted their students' experiences with the district's busing system on The Reporter's Facebook page and website.

Michelle Duffy My youngest (michael) had a mix up his FIRST day of school. Was put on the wrong bus, but bus driver was great, they have RADIOS and we were in touch with them the whole time. Instead of freaking him out, we made fun of it. Believe it or not, he couldn't care less. He was on the school bus and knew eventually they would bring him home. I was more worried than he was!

THIS IS ABOUT SAFETY. In 2009, my daughter did not come home from school on her first day of kindergarten. Apparently there was a bus transfer that was taking place but this transfer was not communicated to any of the parents by North Penn or First Student. My daughter stayed on her originally assigned bus when she should have transferred. She was not found until late in the afternoon, after all of the children were dropped off and she was the last child sitting on the bus. The bus driver asked who she was and where she lived and told her she was on the wrong the bus. Needless to say I was frantic as a parent experiencing this nightmare. My husband and I demanded some answers. - Comment from WtrGrl73

The district is expected to hold a follow up meeting Oct. at 7 p.m. at North Penn Educational Services Center.