Argh! Due to a production glitch, my column today about the Philadelphia Police Department's surveillance camera system was accompanied by a photo that is NOT a Philly police camera. Rather, it is a red-light camera located on Roosevelt Boulevard. The systems are entirely different, and the red-light cameras are working just fine (as anyone who has gotten a red-light-generated ticket will attest!)

I hate when this happens. I apologize for such an embarassing error.

Got this thoughtful letter from King of Prussia reader Ed Campbell, whose child attends a Philadelphia Archdiocesan elementary school. He wrote in response to my column today about the archdiocese' limiting the school-selection choices of families affected by the school closings and mergers slated for June.

Campbell's letter is on the long side, but he makes such compelling points I don't want to edit it. 

Here it is:

"I am a parent of a child who attends Mother of Divine Providence Catholic School in King of Prussia.   Our school has been 'saved”' from outright closure, but is scheduled to reopen next year under a new name and merged with students and families from Conshohocken Catholic.   Because we have been 'saved' I am supposed to be relieved.  The reality is that I struggle to make sense of the Blue Ribbon Commission’s proposal for Catholic elementary schools.  I am not alone.

"Looking closely at the Blue Ribbon Commission’s report, there is a consistent theme among the schools affected.  With few exceptions the schools affected are at or below 50% of their capacity, and on average, require substantial subsidies from their parish.  Looking at that broad picture, the decision to merge and consolidate schools is compelling and inescapable.  However the same cannot be said about which schools are actually merged together.  Those decisions, to many parents, are outright baffling. 

"There is an existing model for regional education that the Blue Ribbon Commission appears to have ignored completely, and that is our regional public school system.   Merging Catholic elementary schools in a way that roughly mirrors the geographic boundaries of our public school systems would provide efficiencies in busing, curriculum and scheduling.  More importantly, our public-school districts give shape to what many of us consider to be our broader communities.  To many families who will be displaced, moving to a school that is in close proximity and/or within the boundaries of their current school system would provide a sense that they are attending a school within their community.  Reordering our Catholic Schools along the geographical lines of our public school systems would also be consistent with the concept of 'school choice.'  If you elect not to send your child to your local public school, there would be a logical alternative located within your own public-school district. Keeping children in Catholic schools located within existing public- school district boundaries seems like a natural fit. 

"So why was that model ignored?  WEell, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia organizes itself into four administrative Regions (Episcopal Regions).  Each region is assigned an Auxiliary Bishop. Each Region is subdivided into multiple Deaneries.  Each Deanery is subdivided into a handful of Parish Planning Areas (“PPAs”).  Each PPA is comprised of 4-8 parishes.  Who knew?  In a world where Episcopal Regions, Deaneries and PPAs are relevant, the reorganization falls together very nicely…… 

"In that world, it makes sense to merge St. Philip Neri in East Greenville, Montgomery County, with schools in Quakertown, Bucks County, because they are in the same Deanery and PPA.  Or, consider the merger proposed between Conshohocken Catholic (Colonial School District) and Mother of Divine Providence in King of Prussia (Upper Merion School District), approximately 7 miles away.  Many children from Conshohocken are already migrating to Catholic schools in Plymouth and Lafayette Hill that are within the Colonial School District.  So it would seem to make sense to send children from Conshohocken to schools located within the same public-school district’s boundaries and where many are already migrating. 

"But if you live in the world of Deaneries, you don’t see the world that way. If you see the world as a Deanery, it makes much more sense to send children from Conshohocken to King of Prussia because they are in the same Deanery and PPA.  Similarly, no consideration is given to sending children from St. Theresa in Trooper to Mother of Divine Providence in King of Prussia (despite their close proximity) because they are in different Deaneries and PPAs.  

"The problem with all of that is obvious.  Episcopal Regions, Deaneries and PPA are irrelevant to most of us showing up in the pews on Sundays and making the sacrifices to send our children to Catholic Schools.  Those arbitrary divisions and territories do not give shape or meaning to our everyday lives.  Using them as a model to reorganize schools results in many merged schools that simply don’t make sense to us down here at the bottom of the ecclesiastical food-chain. 

"One concrete example of the impact of the Archdiocese’ choice policy:

"Conshohocken Catholic has about 200 kids.  They are supposed to go to Mother of Divine Providene  in King of Prussia. The Blue Ribbon Commissions' projection was that Mother of Divine Providence would get about 150-180 of the 200 kids from Conshohocken Catholic.   But the overwhelming majority of Conshohocken Catholic want to go to St. Philip Neri or Epiphany, which are closer and in same public-school district.   The current estimate is that only 35 from Conshohocken will go to Mother of Diviner Providence.  Many think that is wildly optimistic.  The rest will transfer to the pubil- school system. 

"And what about funding that Catholic Schools recieve?  Most programs are administered by school districts and counties.  To the extent that the new regional schools cross school district lines and/or counties, it makes access to the programs that are available much less efficient.

"The Blue Ribbon Commission sent out a survey early on its process.  The Commission knew that they had to close schools, yet they didn’t ask a very simple and fundamental question:  'If your local Catholic elementary school were to close, where would you most likely send your child to school?'  If that question had been asked, I predict that, overwhelmingly, parents would have expressed a desire to send their children to closer Catholic schools and Catholic schools within the public-school catchment area.  More importantly, the Blue Ribbon Commission would have had an invaluable source of information to guide them as they reorganized and regionalized our Catholic schools.   

"Sadly, the failure to ask that simple question, the failure to take into consideration preferences and tendencies of parents with children in Catholic schools and the failure to look at our public-school system’s geographic boundaries as a model will result in many new merged schools that are simply doomed to fail.  The Commission missed an opportunity to create truly sustainable newly merged Catholic schools. It is as if they are setting merged schools up to fail.

"My prayer is that our new Archbishop will have the courage to pause, step back, and look at the need to close and merge elementary schools without regard to Episcopal Regions and Deaneries and instead, look at what mergers might actually work."

I             

Gotta scratch my head over the new ban on boots declared by Pottstown Middle School. Administrators have forbidden the wearing, in school, of loose-topped boots (like Uggs) because kids are storing their cell phones inside them (kids aren't allowed to use their cell phones during the school day).

Every school has a problem with this, so Pottstown's frustrations aren't uncommon. But why, pray tell, the ban on loose-topped boots? Cell phones can be smuggled in pockets, snug underwear and bras (which can carry a significant health risk, but that's a separate issue). Will those items be banned, too?

This is just silly.

As a dad of ten, John McGeehan has a strong father's intuition. When his son, Joe "Babe" McGeehan disappeared, John wondered if Babe's car had gone off the road at Unruh Ave. and into the Delaware River. He asked nearby Orthodox Auto parts to check video-surveillance footage for the night of Jan. 7th, the last time anyone had seen Babe. This is the image the cameras caught. Babe's vehicle enters the screen at about the 15-second mark.

Turns out that poor Kevin Kless wasn't yelling at a cab driver for having his "availability light" turned on. He was yelling at the cabbie for refusing to take Kless and his two female companions on a short ride.

Cabbies, do your goddamn job.

Just got this press release from Fishtown Catholic parent and neighborhood activist A.J. Thompson, about a pep rally today 1:30pm regarding St. Laurentius elementary school, slated to close in June. He included this photo, which shows school supporters "Tebowing" for Catholic Education in Fishtown.

Here's info about the rally:

"The Spirit of the 177-year tradition of Catholic Education in Fishtown takes center stage today as the students of St. Laurentius School rally to demonstrate the heart of the Lion - the school mascot.  After almost 1,000 of their neighbors took to the streets in support of the school, the students have continued to demonstrate how the values of Catholic Education sustain a community.  Last night, the school served 450 neighbors and friends at a free spaghetti dinner, just one of the hundreds of service projects taken on each year by the school community.     

"As the school readies its appeal to the Archdiocese for January 24th, the students, parents, faculty and supporters keep their heads held high and their spirits up.  Seen in the photo "Tebowing" for their school, the students today will demonstrate to all how much their education means to them and how the facts show that the decision to close this almost-full-capacity school is one that Archbishop Chaput must reverse." 

 For information about the rally call 215-287-3492 or email ajthomson7@gmail.com. 

Just got this nice e-mail from reader Milton Trachtenburg, a therapist who spent his career helping abused women and who wrote a few books in that field.  Tarchtenburg liked today's column about former state welfare department appointee Robert Patterson, who believes that the best-raised chldren are those with a stay-at-home mom.

Not that there's anything wrong with stay-at-home moms. A woman's choice is no one's business but her own. But what's with the vilification of working moms?

Anyway, with Milton's permission (and with my thanks), here is his Milton's personal perspective on having a wife who worked while their kids were growing up.

Hit it, Milton!

"Dear Ms. Polaneczky:

 "I loved your skewering of Mr Patterson and his 14th Century views of motherhood, women's rights and sperm utility.

 "I'm just contemplating where my wife and I would be today if it weren't for the contribution her teacher's pension makes to our overall financial welfare. It certainly wouldn't be in Miami Beach with a view of the ocean to stimulate us to live longer than the view from the hovel we would have been able to afford without it!

"Our son must have suffered the tribulations of Hell in a youth which "forced" him to learn how to cook, be a latchkey kid and make independent decisions from an early age---as his father also did in his misanthropic youth in a two-parent working family. Our son was so badly destroyed that he pursued his dream of becoming an entertainer and raising his daughter the same way so that she is now an independent 18-year old with her own band, Supercute!, which performs internationally.

"My wife, defined by a superlative professional work history, gave the two of us more to talk about than how many bon-bons she consumed watching soap operas. She never did need an antidepressant because her life was fulfilling at work and at home, as was mine. Now in early retirement, she got the itch to do more professionally so she opened a little tutoring practice and was asked to consider a part-time job in one of the elite private schools here in Florida. So much for the fulfilling life of a retiree. Volunteering or serving time in "women's" organizations with a bunch of former housefraus whose whole life is showing off pictures of their children and grandchildren or giving "organ recitals" about their latest medical incursions, are not her idea of a fulfilling life, even in retirement.

 "She has taught three generations of children how to read and has worked successfully with some of the most difficult problems that no one else seemed able to solve as well as written one of the seminal articles in her field which has been quoted in dozens of textbooks as recently as one written in 2010. Before we moved to Florida in 2010, she constantly had adults approach her in restaurants or stores to thank her for what she did for them years earlier and still has dozens of teachers contacting her to help them resolve current problems.

 "Had Mr Patterson had his way, this remarkable woman would have spent her life doing nothing of value. We managed to complete all the chores somehow amongst us and that is what they were---chores. I wish for Mr Patterson exactly the kind of wife he wished upon the rest of us men: Someone who demonstrates no brains, no confidence, no independent will and he can rot in the hell he created by doing so.

 "Again, thanks for casting a light upon a particularly dark and ugly corner of our so-called civilized society."

When he posed for "Nation's Bravest," a 2012 firefighter beefcake calendar, Jack Slivinski Jr. wanted the proceeds of his portion of the calendar sales to benefit Philadelphia Firefighters Local 22 Widow's Fund.

After his death by suicide in June, that cause became more important than ever to his mom Gerry, dad Jack Sr. and sister Jennifer Wysocki. So I'm glad to pass along their request that you click here to vote for Jack Jr. in an online contest rating each "Nation's Bravest" firefighter on sexiness. ( Note: The deadline to vote is Jan. 15, so the quicker your click, the better.) The top vote-getter earns a $1,000 prize from Rusk Hair Products, which is sponsoring the "Being Sexy" contest. If Jack wins - so far, he's leading the pack - the money will go to the Widow's Fund.

I know. A contest on "sexiness" is silly. And the website for it is kind of cheesy. But this is good cause and Jack Jr. was a wonderful guy. To meet him in happier days, click here.

Now go vote! 

Love today's piece by my colleague Stu Bykofsky, about Tebow dropping to a knee in the end zone to give a prayer of thanks - aka "Tebowing."

But this terrific Washington Post story from 2007 shows why the practice should be called Lusking, in honor of Pastor Herb Lusk, former Philadelphia Eagles running back and shepherd of local - and massive- -  Greater Exodus Baptist Church on North Broad St. 

Let's give the man credit that's his to own.