Hite will present his blueprint for schools Monday

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.

Hite said his "action plan," to be released on his 111th day on the job, will focus on two goals that must be the backbone of every decision the school system makes going forward: improving academics for students in both district-run and charter schools, and ensuring fiscal sustainability.

While those may seem no-brainers in an organization that exists to educate children with public money, it's worth remembering the district's current straits: perilously close to fiscal insolvency and projecting a $1 billion deficit over the next five years, with half of all children unable to read and do math at grade level.

Hite, in an interview Thursday, said that inside the two overarching goals will be six strategies, with a series of actions under each.

And please, he said, pay attention to how he's doing.

"People should expect a focused and detailed action plan that includes significant metrics that will allow us to measure our progress" publicly, he said.

While the full specifics of the plan won't be released until Monday, Hite did offer some hints.

One strategy, he said, will be "to foster a system of excellent schools." That will look at "how schools look, how they operate, the size of schools. Who operates schools. The types of programs that are available at schools."

Hite and his bosses on the School Reform Commission have said they plan to stick with the Renaissance school strategy, which overhauls the lowest-performing schools, either handing them over to charters or keeping them as district-run schools with new staffs and more resources.

And the superintendent has mentioned he wants more innovation inside district schools, particularly high schools. Hite has said he wants more college partnerships, and pointed to a school in Prince George's County, Md., his former district, that had a fully functional student-run bank as an example of the kind of program he likes.

His plan will not have a list of innovations, Hite said, but "these may be programs that are responsive to certain areas, certain needs that have been identified inside of the community, certain workforce trends."

But innovation doesn't come cheap. And one key criticism of Imagine 2014, the plan of Hite's predecessor, Arlene C. Ackerman, was that while it was a solid academic document, the cost of the initiatives it called for was never tallied or allocated, so it had no chance of being executed well.

Not so for his plan, Hite said.

"We can't spend more than we have," he said. "This district has done that in the past, unfortunately."

Closing a large number of schools in June must be part of the plan, Hite said. He has recommended shutting 37, and forcing grade and program changes at dozens more; the SRC will vote on the closures in March.

"We cannot operate buildings that are empty," Hite said. "We have to make sure that if in fact there are new and effective programs, they're replacing something - not additions to something that may not work."

Inside the remaining buildings, Hite stressed, academics must improve, from more students in tougher courses to how reading is taught.

The adoption of national curriculum standards means the district should be providing more support, not less, Hite said. Officials had announced before this year that they would be pushing autonomy to schools, but Hite said that while autonomy works in some situations, supports have to be in place, too.

"If there were ever a time for us to have curriculum guidelines, it's now," Hite said. "With the Common Core, that's not something that you should just leave up to individuals at the schools to develop on their own."

The superintendent said the plan - a "living document" that he expects to change with district needs - will rely heavily on practices that are currently working either in Philadelphia or elsewhere.

Inside the district, "there are a lot of evidence-based things that either are not done or are not done with fidelity," Hite said.

His plan? Put structures in place to replicate what works, "and then work like the devil" to make them happen.