Restructuring

Foamex International Inc., the Linwood, Delaware County, manufacturer of foam for industry and consumers, yesterday said it had launched a restructuring and hired an investment banker to evaluate whether to sell businesses and how to reduce debt. The company said it would close 10 of its 56 plants in 1996, four by the first quarter. It did not say how many employees would be affected or what plants would close. Foamex said it would consider the sale of its automotive-carpet, trim and textiles businesses and its home-comfort-products subsidiary.

Westmoreland Coal Co. announced yesterday that it would restructure its Virginia mining operations and cut an unspecified number of workers there because of continuing heavy financial losses. The Philadelphia coal producer also said it hoped to cut overall mining costs and develop new, lower-cost mines. The Virginia coal division has had huge losses in recent years. Through August, the division lost about $4.5 million. In 1991, the division lost $12 million. Westmoreland has attributed the losses to geological and equipment problems that have reduced output at the Holton and Bullitt mines.

Peco Energy employees will learn the full details today of a major restructuring plan that is expected to result in cost savings - and hundreds of layoffs. The restructuring plan is part of a six-month review conducted by the company in an attempt to become more competitive now that deregulation is ending Peco's electric service monopoly. The plan targets Peco's local distribution company - the regulated part of the business that includes electric lines, poles and meters. About half of Peco's 7,200 employees work for the local distribution company.

After Six Inc., the Philadelphia formal-wear maker, has completed a financial restructuring plan and brought in a new chief executive as it attempts to recover from the damage of an expensive management buyout. "I'm very excited that we have been able to restructure and go forward," president and chairman Robert C. Rudofker said yesterday. The company declined to give details of its restructuring, other than to say that it had obtained a $30 million line of credit from the CIT Group/ Business Credit Inc. in New York.

The questions have been asked time and time again: How long should the school day be? What can be done about violence in schools? How should a school's curriculum change with the times? Of what value is testing? Now some answers may be forthcoming in a report on school restructuring to be developed by eight principals from across the United States, including David S. Hottenstein, principal of Hatboro-Horsham High School. The national commission will work with Ernest Boyer, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, in conjunction with the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

T HE Philadelphia School District will massively restructure itself in the coming months, fundamentally altering the way it is organized and run - and possibly closing 40 low-performing, underused schools next year as it shifts many more students to charter schools. The district faces a $218 million shortfall for the coming school year, more than previously stated and subject to rise if Mayor Nutter's proposed city tax plan does not materialize. Pressing academic and safety problems, "and the fact that, financially, we cannot continue in the present form of organization and operations that we have right now," require the district to change its basic structure, Chief Recovery Officer Thomas Knudsen said Monday.

ATHENS, Greece - Greece's finance minister on Wednesday ruled out any restructuring of his country's crippling debt burden but warned that even more budget cutbacks were needed to achieve EU targets. Greece avoided bankruptcy last year with a $160 billion rescue package from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund. In return, the government slashed pensions and civil service salaries while hiking taxes and retirement ages. Many analysts believe Greece will eventually have to restructure its debt, regardless of whether it implements all the reforms it promised.

Scott Paper Co. yesterday reported improved earnings that the company said were early results of its latest corporate restructuring, which is to be completed by the end of this year. Albert J. Dunlap, Scott's new chairman, said earnings were up in the company's core tissue businesses, outweighing lower sales and prices in Europe and lower earnings of S.D. Warren, Scott's printing and publishing papers subsidiary. "I am encouraged by the increase in our earnings this quarter because my primary focus has been on my four-part program for Scott, rather than near- term earnings," Dunlap said.

Last year's major restructuring at SPS Technologies and new strength in the automotive industry have brought a second quarter of sales and earnings growth for the Jenkintown industrial-fastener company. Last year, the company reduced its headquarters staff from 167 to 26, fired 200 nondirect employees and sold off its corporate jet. In the process, SPS took $32.4 million in restructuring charges. The company expects to complete the sale of its 155-acre former headquarters in Newtown Township, Bucks County to Holy Family College in December.

The Crossroads School, a private school in Paoli for students with learning disabilities, will not operate during the 2010-11 academic year due to declining enrollment and economic concerns, officials said Tuesday. Valley Forge Educational Services, a nonprofit that operates Crossroads, said it plans to restructure the school and resume operations for 2011-12. The school, which has operated for 32 years, educates children between the ages of 4 and 15. Sixty-six students were enrolled in the last academic year.

St. Hubert Catholic High School for Girls in Holmesburg marked the one-year anniversary of its rescue from closing last week with a march, rally, and Mass of Thanksgiving. Monsignor Bonner-Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High School in Drexel Hill celebrated with pretzels, a dress-down day, and played pop songs when class periods changed. But in the 12 months since Archbishop Charles J. Chaput announced a plan to restructure Catholic education in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that spared four high schools from closing, the most dramatic changes were less visible.

Eagles coach Chip Kelly decided to bring back Michael Vick for another season with a restructured contract, but buried beneath his praise for Vick was his admission that the "landscape for other quarterbacks" wasn't very promising. And that essentially summed up Kelly's decision to keep Vick, even though a majority of Eagles fans seem ready to move on to the next phase the new coach represented. "I agree there is a change of scenery going on here," Kelly said Monday at the NovaCare Complex. "For Michael Vick, there is a change of scenery, but not a change of address.

As New Jersey legislators struggled Monday to concoct a politically palatable or perhaps magical mechanism to - affiliate? amalgamate? - Rutgers-Camden and Rowan University while "restructuring" higher education statewide, I called Bill Lutz. Who better to shed light on these murky machinations than the quotable author of Doublespeak and other books about the often opaque language of politics? "Their lack of clarity flows from a lack of clear thought," said Lutz, 71, a consultant who retired in 2005 after 35 years as a Rutgers-Camden professor of English.

Rowan University faculty members are considering coming out against legislation that would restructure New Jersey's public universities, potentially adding weight to plan opposition. In a statement released Sunday, university senate president Eric Milou said a proposed joint board overseeing Rowan and Rutgers-Camden would "diminish the autonomy and potential growth of both universities. " The statement proposed that the schools collaborate through other means. "Faculty and staff have consistently demonstrated restraint about the speculation and controversy regarding the possibilities of a reorganization of higher education in NJ," Milou said.

TRENTON — A major bill drops in the Legislature's lap after months of discussion and speculation. The Democratic Senate leader is on board. The Democratic Assembly leader appears hesitant. Outside the Statehouse, there are protests. Inside, unannounced tweaks to the bill. Looming overhead is the $30 billion state budget. And the Republican governor who set this all in motion, and stands to get the most credit or blame, waits for the Democrats' next move. Sound familiar?

As Jerry Jordan blasted School Reform Commission restructuring plans Tuesday night, heads turned to the back of the room, to a line of children, sporting a poster with a simple message: "We need better schools. " Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, spoke out against SRC proposals to overhaul the Philadelphia School District's structure and planned layoffs to nurses and other professionals at an "emergency community meeting" held at Bright Hope Baptist Church in North Philadelphia.

Today, the City Council budget hearing for the school district starts at 10 a.m. Given what's at stake and the complexity of the changes the district is proposing, by our reckoning, the hearing should end ... sometime next month. The district recently announced a massive restructuring plan that will close schools, create "achievement networks," push more students into charters, and rely on major concessions from the unions to get $156 million in savings, while coping with a deficit of more than $200 million for next year.

On the brink of financial ruin and not improving nearly fast enough academically, the Philadelphia School District will, over the next 16 months, completely reinvent the way it organizes and runs schools. And with the announcement of its radical restructuring last week, questions swirl. Is the district privatizing public education? Who will run the new "achievement networks," groups of 25 or so schools to be managed by either outside providers or district staff, bound by performance contracts with the School Reform Commission, and expected to be entrepreneurial?

T HE Philadelphia School District will massively restructure itself in the coming months, fundamentally altering the way it is organized and run - and possibly closing 40 low-performing, underused schools next year as it shifts many more students to charter schools. The district faces a $218 million shortfall for the coming school year, more than previously stated and subject to rise if Mayor Nutter's proposed city tax plan does not materialize. Pressing academic and safety problems, "and the fact that, financially, we cannot continue in the present form of organization and operations that we have right now," require the district to change its basic structure, Chief Recovery Officer Thomas Knudsen said Monday.

The Philadelphia School District will massively restructure itself in the coming months, fundamentally altering the way it is organized and run - and possibly closing 40 low-performing, underused schools next year and shifting many more students to charters. The district faces a $218 million shortfall for the coming school year, more than previously stated and subject to rise if Mayor Nutter's proposed city tax plan does not materialize or if a recent charter school ruling is not altered.