By Paul Kurtz

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A Philadelphia-based community group and the local chapter of the NAACP are blasting Mayor Nutter over the plan to close 29 public schools at the end of this school year (see related stories).

“We are calling on our mayor to stand with us for a one-year moratorium,” said Kia Hinton, a member of Action United and the mother of four public school students, said today.

She says a moratorium would give opponents of the plan some much-needed time “to consider alternatives and fully engage the community. And we call on Mayor Nutter to stand with the people who elected him and support the moratorium.”

Local NAACP president Jerry Mondesire says repeated attempts to contact the mayor have been met with silence.

“Patience — and we’ve employed it for a very long time in the school closing crisis — may running out,” Mondesire said today. “We’re demanding a meeting with the mayor and certain members of City Council to find out why they haven’t stepped forward to provide leadership.”

The School Reform Commission is scheduled to vote on the school closing plan March 7th (see related story).