School maze for Johnson

A COUPLE of burly linemen for the Jeremiah E. Burke football team served as guides Tuesday for city leaders during a tour of the spectacularly renovated high school in Dorchester. Now it falls to School Superintendent Carol Johnson to clear a path at the Burke and other city schools still littered with obstacles to academic success.

Mayor Menino calls the $49.5 million renovation, which includes a new library and gymnasium, "a great symbol of a new era for the Boston Public Schools." Such euphoria is understandable considering how low the Burke had sunk in 1995, when it was stripped of its accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. As schools open today, confidence in the Burke is at its greatest level since the 1940s and '50s, when the school was a reliable stepping stone to decent careers and colleges.

Still, the facility upgrade at the Burke, though badly needed, will be a hollow addition unless it leads to academic improvement at a school where only about one-quarter of 10th-graders achieved proficiency last year on the math and English MCAS exams. The class of 2010 will be required in most cases to meet the proficiency requirement in order to graduate.

Johnson made that point strongly when she reminded guests that it is the Burke's teachers and school leaders, not new bricks and bleachers, that transform schools. More blunt talk will be needed from the school superintendent, who is dealing with declining enrollment, increased competition from parochial and charter schools, runaway transportation costs, and an unwieldy school assignment process.

Boston doesn't need, and can't afford, to maintain 143 schools for just 56,000 students. Johnson must decide quickly on which schools to close or consolidate. Then she must make her case to the affected families. Time isn't on her side. Parents choose schools in January, often with the benefit of a citywide showcase in the fall. That showcase is now scheduled for December, by which time the closures must be known.

Wisely, the second-year superintendent has assembled an aggressive leadership team. Elliot Stern, the new academic superintendent for middle schools, and elementary school superintendents Mary Nash and Victoria Megias-Batista are outspoken administrators who are likely to demand results. But the system still lacks strong leadership in special education.

Even with the rebirth of the Burke, this looks to be an arduous year for Boston's schools.