Central Office

Six months after asking her entire central administration staff to resign, Superintendent Annette D. Knox is again trying to reorganize the school district's core leadership. Last week, she recommended a slew of personnel moves, including transfers, hires, and the demotion of the district's second-ranking administrator. The school board is expected to vote on the changes tonight at its monthly meeting. It will also consider a plan to lay off 136 employees. Knox offered no explanation for the reorganization when she presented the recommendations to the board.

City Controller Jonathan Saidel deserves a gold star for catching imprudent expenditures by some Philadelphia public schools staffers. To show it learned the lesson, the district's central office should quickly devise rules for those in the schools who now make most decisions about individual spending. At a time when the district is decentralizing its operations and trying to convince the state that it deserves more funding, expensive staff dinners in fancy restaurants send the wrong message.

More than seven months after their contract expired, secretaries and classroom aides in the Methacton School District finally have a new three-year agreement. The Educational Services Personnel Association and the Methacton Board of School Directors ratified the tentative agreement Feb. 11. The board gave final approval Tuesday. The contract, which affects about 71 district employees, calls for 4.5 percent increases in each of the three years. Union members now will pick up 10 percent of the cost for full health benefits.

For the last two years, as the federal government doled out millions for education spending, the School District of Philadelphia has enjoyed an increase in teacher hires, resources and student achievement. But with massive financial uncertainty looming, district officials now face the daunting task of restructuring the way they do business. And that may include deep cuts across the board, from central office staff to teachers to music and sports. Deputy Superintendent Leroy Nunery said that if the district doesn't get enough money from the city or state to plug the hole, the district should prepare for layoffs and budget cuts.

In a concrete vault beneath North 17th Street in Center City, Bob Tollok was sitting on a low bench with maybe 30 pounds of an incomprehensible tangle of twisted, colored telephone lines at his feet. Into and out of this damp basement of a vault converge almost all the telephone lines in Center City. From the vault they snake up into Bell of Pennsylvania's central office at 1631 Arch St., where phone traffic that enters, travels through or leaves Center City is directed. Tollok, a line splicer for Bell of Pennsylvania, was splicing hundreds of these lines on Monday.

IN THE LAST four years, reports that the region's arts and culture organizations are on shaky financial ground have become more frequent. And troubling. Last year, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance found that though arts and cultural organizations are important assets to the region - they bring in $573 million in revenue annually and do wonders for tourism - far too many live hand-to-mouth. With operating margins at a lean 1.7 percent, many groups lead a precarious existence.

What is the largest multi-site system serving approximately 26,000 children in Philadelphia, with a combined annual budget of more than $116 million for which there is no publicly supported central office or even a clearinghouse? If you answered the child-care system, you can step to the front of the class. Despite the critical 1991 Carnegie Report, "Starting Points," which underscored the importance of early childhood education, child care receives little attention. Mayor Rendell's recent statement that "child care is the most important economic development issue facing Philadelphia," failed to bring the obstacles providers face when working with city or state regulatory and licensing agencies to the forefront.

When Larry Magid learned of the School District's difficulty in funding region music festivals, which annually showcase the talents of 15,000 kids, his instincts were to help. So he made a phone call to Deputy Schools Superintendent Jeanette Brewer. Magid, co-owner of Electric Factory Concerts, a major concert promoter in town, told her he wanted to donate the $12,000 needed to pull off the music festivals this year. Late yesterday, Brewer got word that the School District could pick up the check any time.

Calling it "an enormous, enormous challenge," acting superintendent Leroy Nunery yesterday said the Philadelphia School District is determined schools will open Sept. 6 "in a systemic and orderly" way. "We've got to restore confidence that the public has in public education," Nunery said at a news conference a day after he was named to replace Arlene Ackerman. "It's not going to be easy given all the things that have happened around us. But I think we have an opportunity to restore that confidence, that sense of pride in how people identify with the schools that they go to. " Nunery promised a better relationship with labor unions, including granting greater access to information and communication with district headquarters.

Rhonda H. Lauer is back in the saddle. Lauer, who left her third-in-command post at the Philadelphia School District in July because of differences with Superintendent David Hornbeck, will become chief executive officer of a non-profit group that partly will explore ways to improve education. Privately financed Foundations Inc., based in Darby, Delaware County, underwrites programs to improve the lives of children and families. One such program, which operates in the William Penn School District in Delaware County, offers before-and-after-school child care for youngsters through sixth grade, workshops for parents and a free summer camp.