A top Skipper at the helm

“Hi, Skip!’’ said one teenager after another.

Hers is a happy school, and a successful one. In this Dorchester building, Skipper has taken on kids others might put in the too-hard basket and turned them into proud, personable, ambitious students.

That has made Skipper, 43, something of a star in a system that sorely needs them.

There was some keening a couple of weeks ago, after Stephen Zrike, the hero principal who had come in to save the South End’s troubled Blackstone School, took his cape and flew off to Chicago to become a superintendent in the middle of the school year.

A lot had been riding on the rising star.

“When you select top-level leadership, even in your most challenging schools, the best teachers in the district will come for those leaders,’’ says Boston Schools Superintendent Carol Johnson.

Soon, a failing school becomes the kind for which a parent might give up a limb. And so Zrike’s departure was particularly deflating.

Fortunately, there are other great principals — stars willing to stick with Boston.

When they first came to her 18 months ago, Skipper’s current 11th-graders were typical of the city’s public school students: About a quarter of them had special needs, about a fifth were English-language learners, and 85 percent came from families poor enough to qualify them for free or reduced-price lunches. Half of them had failed to hit their benchmarks on MCAS tests.

Last year 75 percent of those students scored proficient or advanced in math, one of the most dramatic improvements of any school in the state. Almost all of last year’s seniors went on to college. The dropout rate was a minuscule 2 percent.

Last year, TechBoston absorbed the underperforming Wilson Middle School. Johnson hopes Skipper will work the same wonders with grades 6 through 8 as she has with the upper classes.

“A lot of people don’t get a chance to create a school from scratch,’’ Skipper said. “I get to do it twice.’’

Her success is about more than longer school days, constant contact with parents, and laptops for every student. Skipper is best known for her ability to draw amazing work from teachers.

“If you need help, they’re always there,’’ said Jasyre Porter, a tall senior who described himself as “every teacher’s worst nightmare’’ before TechBoston. “Other schools, I was just being taught, but here our teachers interact with us to make sure we understand.’’

Because this is a pilot school, free from some union rules, Skipper has been able to hand-pick her faculty. But among her choices are some teachers others might have written off: Half of the teachers from the underperforming Wilson came to TechBoston last year, and they’re thriving, too.

She expects a lot from them, but she also gives them a huge amount of support. As a result, very few leave. They rarely even call in sick. Listen to her talk about her work, and you want to sign up, too.

“There are only a few fields where you can look in the mirror every day and be very clear about why you do what you do,’’ she said. “I never have to wonder. We’re breaking cycles, and we’re creating new ones.’’

Principals like Skipper are coveted in urban school districts across the country. But she’s not going anywhere.

“I’m very clear that my work is with TechBoston,’’ she said.

Ideally, the schools would be so great that it wouldn’t matter so much if the hero principals of the world decided to go somewhere else. But we’re not there yet in Boston.

Lucky then, that Skip wants to stay.

Yvonne Abraham can be reached at abraham@globe.com.