Burke's $49.5m rehab lifts school spirit, image
Beginning of class brings tears - of joy
With a black backpack slung over his shoulders, 16-year-old Augusto Ceron strode into the Jeremiah E. Burke High School's new library and gazed in awe at the dozens of computers, the books neatly stacked in shiny white metal cases, and the floor-to-ceiling windows that offer a panoramic view of the Boston skyline.
"Oh my God, this is the library, dude," Ceron exclaimed, covering his mouth with his hands.
Moments later, he said he would no longer feel ashamed to admit he goes to the Burke.
"Students actually have something to be proud of now," Ceron said. "I can see myself staying here all day without getting bored."
City and school leaders are wagering that a $49.5 million investment in the Burke will help resuscitate a high school that was stripped of accreditation for two years in the mid-1990s. Back then, gangs ruled the hallways and student achievement was dismal.
Through the years, the school in the Grove Hall section of Dorchester has evolved into a barometer to measure Mayor Thomas M. Menino's success in school improvement. A piece of falling ceiling brushed the mayor's shoulder during a visit in 1995, prompting an impassioned call for change. And it was at the Burke, the following winter, that Menino deliv ered a state of the city address challenging residents to "judge me harshly" if the city's schools did not improve.
Yesterday, Menino marveled at the beauty of the refurbished school, noting he no longer would need to watch his head.
"Over the years, I have visited this school several times," Menino said at a press conference, in advance of Boston's first day of school tomorrow. "I've always been impressed with the spirit and heart here."
The improvements include a new gymnasium, a performing and visual arts center, and several computer and science laboratories. A community center and a branch of the Boston public library - separate from the school library - are also located in the new wing and are scheduled to open in January.
The project has been in the making for more than a decade, a goal that was established when the school first ran into accreditation issues in the 1980s. Many staff and parents never thought it would actually happen, especially after some modest repairs in the mid-1990s that helped secure the school's reaccreditation in 1998. They did not think there was any way the administration would spend more money there.
"I walked in here this morning and just started to cry," said Claudia Owumi, who had three children graduate from the Burke between 1998 and 2004 and has been instrumental in keeping city leaders focused on improving the school. "I sat down for a few minutes and kept telling myself 'I've got to pull myself together.' This is a dream come true."
Now, she said, the Burke needs to focus on bolstering its curriculum.
The school's scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests continue to trail state averages. While more than 90 percent of 10th-graders statewide passed the English and math tests in Spring 2007, only 79 percent of Burke sophomores passed English and only 77 percent passed math, according to the most recent state data.
The performance gap, however, has narrowed considerably since the MCAS was first given in 1998. Burke had passing rates of only 10 percent for English and 7 percent for math, compared to a statewide average of well more than 60 percent for each subject.
But the school still struggles to keep students until graduation. Its annual dropout rate of 15.7 percent in the 2006-07 school year was four times the state average.
Shakeeda Bartee, a 17-year-old senior, said the refurbished building should motivate students to stay in school.
"I'm glad to be the first class to graduate from here," said Bartee, student council president. "I wish we were here longer to enjoy that."
Just three years ago, Bartee never imagined she would utter such words about the Burke. She was devastated when the school system assigned her to go there.
"I just cried to my mother, 'No, not the Burke. Don't make me go there,' " Bartee recalled yesterday. "I told her she couldn't pay me to come here. I heard lots of rumors. People never graduate. There were lots of fights."
Bartee said she warmed to the school while it was temporarily located for the last two years on Lawrence Street, a smaller facility that forced students to get to know each other, although they griped a lot about the small classrooms and the scant supply of computers.
Headmaster Carol Bradley Moore, looking around at the more than four dozen computers in the new library, said simply: "I'm in love." 