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District rules may cancel college road trip

Sharif Sligh can only imagine what college will be like for him. Relatives can't provide any insight. His mother didn't make it that far. His older sister chose a different path in life.

Sharif Sligh can only imagine what college will be like for him.

Relatives can't provide any insight. His mother didn't make it that far. His older sister chose a different path in life.

Sligh is the first person in his family who will pursue higher education, and he's counting the days until Saturday, when he, and about 100 other Philadelphia students, plan to board buses to North Carolina to visit one of his top picks for school.

But now the trip may have to be canceled. Aamir Rasheed, who organizes the bus trips, charged that school district officials at the last minute imposed policies he didn't know existed that will keep him from getting buses on time.

District officials said that they are willing to accommodate Rasheed but that they expect him to abide by the rules, which is to go through a process that can take up to six weeks. Plus, a tight budget doesn't help.

Meanwhile, students wait on the sidelines.

"I just want to go to college," Sligh said. "Not only do I want to get out of Philly, I haven't really been anywhere. I just want to try something new."

Over the last six years, Rasheed has taken hundreds of city students on low-cost college tours throughout the city and the South. Some of the kids - who come from poor families, and have never traveled outside the city - didn't think going to college was even an option for them, he said, so the goal was to show youngsters that there was more to life than what existed in their neighborhoods, he said.

In 2004, Rasheed, a retired store owner and father of three successful grown children, and his wife, Leona Cogbill, lobbied the school district for a couple of buses, and organized a trip with 48 students and their parents to Elizabeth City State University, in North Carolina, where one of his daughters had attended.

After that trip came more, and at last count Rasheed said 1,000 students have gotten chances to visit various institutions. All of them have been accepted into colleges they've visited, he said.

Typically, every year, he's contacted the district's Office of College and Career Awareness to get wheels, and he's succeeded most of the time with no hassle, he said. Besides the buses, the district also paid for lodging for the driver, tolls and fuel expenses. The district has spent nearly $15,000 funding his trips, said Donna Frisby-Greenwood, director of the office.

Rasheed said that during a meeting with the district early last month, he was told he would get his two buses as usual. But the following week, he said he was told that he would get one bus, and only after completing the lengthy process for approval, which would be too late for the trip.

"They hit me with a technicality," he said. "If that was the changeup, then why not tell me?"

But Frisby-Greenwood said those have always been the rules.

"This has always been our policy with buses. What he does as a private citizen is a great thing, but there are rules to follow. We're a school district. We are responsible for these children," she said, noting that Rasheed hadn't shown proof that he had the required ratio of one district employee and adult chaperone for every 10 students.

Frisby-Greenwood said that the policy was being enforced now because the new district administration wants to make sure the district is not legally liable in case something happens. Besides, even chaperones must pass a background check, she said.

On top of that, she added, her office had already spent half its $75,000 budget on other trips, leaving little room for more spending.

Rasheed said that he holds no grudge against the district and just wants to get a bus for his students, adding that he plans to speak before the School Reform Commission soon.

"I didn't know we were playing politics. I'm just trying to help students. If we can the youngsters there, that's the goal."