PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The Philadelphia School District’s decision to close as many as nine schools (see related story) is prompting City Council to schedule its own inquiry.

City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell knows that the school district will hold its own public hearings on closing nine schools, but she openly wonders if those hearings will be fruitful.

“It’s kind of run by the school district and controlled by them with their point of view,” Blackwell says.

So she wants her own hearing on the closures — in city council chambers, with the school reform commission in attendance.

“And if you do it here, in the people’s building here at City Hall, and the new SRC, who we don’t know yet, then we really get a chance at the beginning of the term for them to know how we feel and how the public feels.”

No date is set yet for that hearing. The SRC plans 17 community hearings before a vote next March or April.

Reported by City Hall Bureau Chief Mike Dunn, KYW Newsradio 1060