Action Plan

AMERICA IS a great country. What black people need to do is to get together - black churches and all other black groups - and do what we can to get our people to destroy their guns and their drugs. In their place, go to church. Turn to God up in heaven and also become a more educated people. Let's go to college and become well-educated people, and let's wear clean, decent-looking clothes. Let's have shaves and look decent at all times. Get off these corners. If mankind lived the way God intended, all the money we spend on wars is money that could be spent rebuilding the black ghettos.

IN MY TOWN, we live by the commandment "Thou shalt not kill. " It's not that easy in the big city, so may I suggest a few ideas to reduce the gun violence in Philly: 1. Set up a "watchdog vigilante group" in each neighborhood. It will have a very positive effect. 2. Adopt a gun-collecting group to gather up as many guns as they can, put them on a barge on the Delaware River and sail them out to build a reef of guns. This idea is taken from Lynyrd Skynyrd's song "Saturday Night Special": "Why don't we gather up all the guns and drop them to the bottom of the sea, after all, we may end up shooting either you or me. " 3. Raise the gun registration and licensing fee to $200 a gun and impose an even bigger fine on any gun not registered or in the hands of a minor or a criminal.

It sounded tough. Mayor Goode's response to a scathing grand jury report on deficiencies in the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections called for "complete revamping of the organizational and leadership structure of the department. " The mayor last month demoted the two officials fingered by the jury as responsible for unnecessary fires, and directed his new L&I commissioner, Donald Kligerman, to turn up the heat and turn the department around. All that tough talk turns out to be just talk.

Better. Much better. But not quite there yet. The American bishops of the Catholic Church this week proposed an action plan for dealing with the horrific stain that priestly abuse of children has brought upon the institution - and the horrific pain brought to victims, their families and the faithful. In fact, one of the best things about the bishops' statement is that its focus clearly is protecting children and helping victims, not merely preserving the church from scandal.

Today a third-grade teacher in a Philadelphia School District classroom, next month a teacher-training specialist with direct access to Superintendent William R. Hite Jr.? District officials hope so. They are recruiting a small group of people at every level of the organization, from teachers on up, to be part of a unique "Transformation Corps" - 15 or so employees who will work to solve the school system's most critical problems. The members of the corps will answer to folks at the top reaches of the district and work with high-level mentors - successful superintendents and experts from around the country.

ON A HOT June day nine years ago, I met up with an architect and an historian at LOVE Park and we spent the next few hours slowly making our way up Ben Franklin Parkway on foot. By the time we got to the Art Museum I had not only a sunburn, but also a new appreciation for just how much work this grand boulevard needed. While imposing institutions lined both sides, the spaces in between were, for the most part, unplanned and inhospitable. With no places for people to convene, expanses of dead space, no food offerings but a Subway sandwich shop, and constant car traffic that made crossing the street an obstacle course, the Ben Franklin Parkway fell far short of greatness.

A recent United Nations report is the latest in a stream of compelling evidence prompting politicians of all stripes to publicly acknowledge the seriousness of global warming. It is time for Pennsylvania's elected officials to convert their political rhetoric into action on this issue. On Feb. 2, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report predicting global temperature rises of up to 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit and sea-level rises of up to 23 inches by the end of the century.

The Bucks County Commissioners yesterday formed a task force to coordinate the numerous public and private groups working to curb the spread of violence. The Violence Prevention Task Force will spend a year making a plan for spending and countywide collaboration. The goal is to join forces to promote and encourage programs that are working. "The purpose of the task force is to consolidate their efforts and conserve resources," Commissioner Mike Fitzpatrick said of the nonprofit groups that ask the county for office space or funding assistance every year.

Philadelphia Public School Notebook, a monthly publication devoted to local education news/analysis. Call 215-951-0330 x 107 or e-mail psnotebook@aol.com. Web: www.researchforaction.org/edison.html. A Guide to Effective Statewide Laws/Policies: Preventing Discrimination Against LGBT Studies in K-12 Schools. Available through Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund or GLSEN (NY). Call 212-809-8585 or 212-727-0135. Education That Works: An Action Plan for the Education of Minorities.

The Philadelphia School District has proposed a series of management changes in response to a scathing federal audit that found inadequate documentation for nearly $140 million in expenditures and resulted in a recommendation that city schools be placed on a fiscal watch list. While auditors initially called for the return of $17 million in federal funds, district officials on Friday formally outlined the district's reforms and stressed that the U.S. Department of Education has never demanded repayment of any federal subsidies.

ON A HOT June day nine years ago, I met up with an architect and an historian at LOVE Park and we spent the next few hours slowly making our way up Ben Franklin Parkway on foot. By the time we got to the Art Museum I had not only a sunburn, but also a new appreciation for just how much work this grand boulevard needed. While imposing institutions lined both sides, the spaces in between were, for the most part, unplanned and inhospitable. With no places for people to convene, expanses of dead space, no food offerings but a Subway sandwich shop, and constant car traffic that made crossing the street an obstacle course, the Ben Franklin Parkway fell far short of greatness.

THE BEN FRANKLIN Parkway, already on a hot streak, will see even more updates by the time Mayor Nutter leaves office. The city Department of Parks and Recreation on Monday will release a plan called "More Park, Less Way: An Action Plan to Increase Urban Vibrancy on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. " An agency spokesman said Tuesday that the title is suggestive of what the public can expect to be unveiled. "We heard from many in the community and specifically those neighborhoods that are adjacent to the Parkway," spokesman Patrick Morgan said.

EVERY NEW superintendent releases a plan soon after taking office - a blueprint for how things will be different this time as he attempts to turn around our struggling schools. Superintendent William Hite's action plan for city schools, released Monday, calls for higher SAT scores, early literacy and placement of more students in advanced math. But his plan has something that recent superintendents haven't included in theirs: an acknowledgment that money is a problem. As he explains, "The School District of Philadelphia does not have the luxury to set its education agenda without regard for financial implications and sustainability, nor can it be successful if financial decisions are divorced from educational impact.

It is William R. Hite Jr.'s "call to action," a 25-page document that maps out strategy for the future of the Philadelphia School District. And, despite the school system's brutal budget picture - a projected $1 billion deficit over five years, preparing to close one in six schools - Hite's blueprint, just released, is ambitious. He wants to create a virtual school to compete with cyber charter schools that now take district students. He wants to "professionalize teaching," in Philadelphia, rework outdated graduation policies, improve student nutrition, boost the number of students who score well on the SAT and Advanced Placement exams, and increase the percentage of graduates who earn college degrees within six years.

WILLIAM R. HITE'S "Action Plan v1.0" is the product of three months of listening by Philly's newest superintendent. Here are some highlights of the plan's strategies: * Balance and sustain operating, capital and grants budgets. The district faces a cumulative $1 billion deficit over the next five years, and Hite's proposal calls for cutting expenses and tracking progress against the district's five-year financial plan. Fiscal year 2014, which begins July 1, is "especially critical," the plan says.

Coming Monday: a blueprint for the William R. Hite Jr.-era Philadelphia School District. Expect a focus on early literacy, a call for more art and music classes, more students in advanced math by middle school, and more and higher-quality spots in vocational programs. Count on "more prescriptive" strategies in teaching reading in struggling schools, though not a return to the reviled scripted curriculum the district used in prior years, the superintendent said. Get ready for an emphasis on better training for teachers and principals, and a real framework for just how Philadelphia schools should be implementing new national curriculum standards, which has so far been missing.

Today a third-grade teacher in a Philadelphia School District classroom, next month a teacher-training specialist with direct access to Superintendent William R. Hite Jr.? District officials hope so. They are recruiting a small group of people at every level of the organization, from teachers on up, to be part of a unique "Transformation Corps" - 15 or so employees who will work to solve the school system's most critical problems. The members of the corps will answer to folks at the top reaches of the district and work with high-level mentors - successful superintendents and experts from around the country.

Forced by state budget cuts to drain its rainy-day fund and postpone its reconstruction plans, SEPTA is now trying to save $2.2 million a year by reducing its energy consumption. The transit agency on Monday issued its first-ever "energy action plan," a blueprint of 18 initiatives aimed at cutting power use and greenhouse-gas emissions. Since 84 percent of SEPTA's energy is used by its vehicles, much of the effort is aimed at making vehicles more efficient or replacing energy hogs with vehicles that use less fuel.

A partnership aimed at removing some of the ocean of pavement that surrounds too many of the living and work spaces in Philadelphia is a welcome sign of environmental progress for the city. A groundbreaking ceremony planned for Thursday will officially kick off the second phase of the Green 2015 Action Plan, whose goal is to add 500 acres of parkland to city neighborhoods by "depaving" them. The partnership, which includes the Philadelphia Water Department, the city Department of Parks and Recreation, the Trust for Public Land, and the Mural Arts Program, hopes to locate at least a patch of parkland — grass, trees, perhaps a few park benches — within a 10-minute walk of anywhere in the city.