The Pennsbury board of school directors appointed Milagro “Millie” Aleman to become the district’s new Director of Transportation during the public school board meeting held on July 30. Aleman, whose appointment will take effect Aug. 10, will replace Charlie Williams, who is retiring from Pennsbury after serving as Director for 17 years.
The Director of Transportation reports to Christopher Berdnick, the district’s Chief Financial Officer. The Director is responsible for: overseeing the maintenance and operation of the district-owned bus fleet, including conforming to all state laws and regulations with regard to school transportation; maintaining safety standards in conformance with state and insurance regulations; recruiting, training and supervising all transportation and bus garage personnel; developing and administering a transportation program to meet all the requirements of the daily instructional program, classroom extensions and extracurricular activities; supervising the preparation of bus routes and bus schedules for all public and non-public schools that district students attend; preparing and administering the Transportation Department budget and authorizing payroll; approving purchases in accordance with budgetary limitations; arranging for the completion of all insurance reports; submitting all reports required by state authorities, including reports for reimbursement; ensuring prompt and appropriate responses to complaints and special inquiries from parents/guardians and staff members; maintaining direct liaison with building-level and Central Office administrators with regard to transportation, service and student discipline; supervising the maintenance of all district-owned equipment and developing plans for preventive maintenance; assisting in planning and making recommendations for the purchase of buses, vans and other automotive equipment and supplies in alignment with the district’s short-term and long-term replacement plans; and performing other duties as may be assigned by the Chief Financial Officer.
“The interview committee was immensely impressed with Ms. Aleman’s humanistic qualities as well as her abundance of experience at all levels within her current transportation department,” said Superintendent Dr. William J. Gretzula. “Specifically, Ms. Aleman spoke of the importance of having a customer-service orientation and partnering closely with parents and students. This was confirmed to be genuine about Millie, as she has risen through the ranks. In the Philadelphia School District, she oversaw a large fleet of vehicles and a comparable number of staff members similar to Pennsbury. With staff, she is known to have implemented various methods to motivate and celebrate her colleagues. We look forward to adding her leadership qualities and care for students to our central level team.”
Aleman will join Pennsbury after serving in a series of positions with expanding responsibilities for the Transportation Department of the School District of Philadelphia since 1995. Having launched her career there as a bus driver, she moved on in 2001 to become the Transportation Garage Supervisor/Dispatcher. In 2006, Aleman was named Acting Street Supervisor and Scheduling Analyst, and then from 2009 to the present, she served as the Transportation Garage Operations Manager for SDP.
Aleman attended the Community College of Philadelphia. She holds a C.D.L license and is a member of the National Association for Pupil Transportation. She also participated in SDP leadership training and became a member of the SDP Operations Executive Team.
