Members of the Mayor's Commission on Public Education, who nearly two months ago released an intensely critical report on the city's schools, already said their goodbyes to each other at a recent farewell party.

But they're still seeking to keep their work alive, primarily through a "citizens alliance" currently being recruited from the Pittsburgh area.

Two task force members appeared at a forum last night at the University of Pittsburgh that was sponsored by the Pitt School of Public Affairs and Amizade, a service learning organization.

The planned alliance will "speak for all those people who can't speak for themselves," said Rosalyn Guy McCorkle, an attorney and a member of the leadership committee of the mayor's commission.

While the makeup of the group hasn't been decided, commission members are "looking for diversity," said Carey Harris, former executive director of the South Side Local Development Co. and a member of the school funding committee of the commission.

"The alliance will hopefully be a body that looks like Pittsburgh," she told the small gathering at David Lawrence Hall, and would be asked to "push for a [school] reform agenda."

Mayor Tom Murphy put together the 37-member commission last year after growing complaints about Pittsburgh Public Schools' leadership and academic quality. The group, split into three committees, spent more than a year working on recommendations that were released in September.

The 144-page report calls for the school board to be appointed by the mayor, the closing of several schools and a 2 mill tax cut that would reduce the district's $82 million reserve fund, which the commission considered too fat.

Executive director Eloise Hirsh said this week that the advocacy group likely wouldn't be created until after the new school board is sworn in next month.

Patrick Dowd, a teacher who unseated longtime board member Darlene Harris in this year's election and will take his seat next month, was a panelist at last night's event.

He noted that while he wasn't opposed to the commission's call for an appointed school board, it should be considered "only if we fail. But not now. Now we have a chance to move forward; let's do it."

He said that progress has been made in the weeks following the release of the report.

"Can you imagine this forum happening two years ago?" he said. "I can't."