BPS has to face hard task of closing schools it no longer needs

The Globe deserves credit for its excellent reporting on school renovations in Baltimore and the work’s relevance to Boston’s own dire school buildings situation (“In Baltimore, a lesson for Boston schools,” Page A1, Oct. 4). One has only to look at the new Boston Public Schools Facilities Condition Assessment: Only 6 of the 129 facilities listed earned a score of 50 or higher (out of a possible 100), indicating that almost every one needs major renovations. Great buildings do not ensure great education as much as excellent, consistent instruction does. But no parent should have to comment, as did Megan Wolf, that “the bathrooms are gross but the instruction is good.”

I wish the reporters had devoted more attention to closing schools. BPS has lost thousands of students in the last few years, and it could close as many as 20 schools it doesn’t need so that it can fund and upgrade fewer buildings. However, unless leaders take dramatic steps, that won’t happen, because closing schools is the hardest task of all.

The pushback from parents and, often, community leaders is intense and unrelenting. Mark Roosevelt, who with the late Thomas Birmingham led in creating the landmark 1993 Massachusetts education reform law, told me as he ended a successful run as superintendent of the Pittsburgh Public Schools, “If I stay, I will have to close schools again, and I cannot face that. It is just too hard.”

It is too hard if the burden falls just on the superintendent, the school committee, or the mayor. Baltimore’s experience points to another way. The mayor and governor should authorize an independent group that enjoys the trust of many in the city to convene an inclusive commission with the explicit charge of recommending closings.

This should be the work of the city for the next 10 or more years. A clean, up-to-date school for every student would show the city’s children the importance of learning.

BPS has lost thousands of students in the last few years.

ELLEN GUINEY Boston