Though Helen Gym is best known as a fierce advocate for Philadelphia's public schools, she has been an effective activist on a range of issues. Gym, 47, of Logan Square, cofounded the Public School Notebook and the advocacy group Parents United for Public Education. She is appropriately impatient with the status quo and, provided she maintains some daylight between herself and her union supporters, capable of being an independent Council member in the tradition of David Cohen, Michael Nutter, and John Street.