As expected, Mayor Tom Menino cruised to victory- and a fourth term- in a sweeping win over challenger Maura Hennigan this week. It was a much-anticipated and well-deserved win, a validation of Menino's overall strong record over the last dozen years. And yet, as he signaled strongly at his victory party at the Fairmount Copley hotel, Menino should act decisively to bring fresh blood and ideas into his next administration.

Menino has already showed a willingness to do just that. His newest cabinet member, Jim Hunt III, who heads up Menino's environment department is a good example of an administration willing to bring young, savvy brainpower into the fold.

One of Menino's toughest decisions is fast approaching: With Thomas Payzant due to end his tenure at the close of the year, who will lead Boston's school system as the next superintendent? During the one televised mayoral forum this fall, Menino himself identified one of Payzant's shortcomings: Few people outside the system have a clue about what goes on at our schools.

While the efficacy of an appointed school committee is apparent, it also limits public access and interest in the system, a by-product that Menino urgently needs to correct. The Boston Public Schools needs to make its case to the public at-large: including potential parents, alumni and donors, not to mention those who are already plugged in. Whoever takes over the BPS needs to reinvent the way Boston's schools relates to its neighbors. Each school should have, in addition to parental oversight, friends groups akin to those that work well at some of our public library branches.

Reforms are also desperately needed at the Boston Police Department. We believe that Kathleen O'Toole is the ideal person to lead the Boston Police Department in Menino's fourth term. But O'Toole needs help - especially in the form of more police recruits. In addition to more boots on the ground, O'Toole must finally modernize the BPD's information systems and make crime statistics available in a timely way to the public via the Internet. The city must improve its case closure rate, especially on murders and violent attacks, which has become a disappointment and leads, inevitably, to retaliatory incidents.

Just as technology can and should be an essential tool to fight crime in Boston, it can also be used to solve simpler problems. The city needs to create a clearinghouse website to give motorists and residents a clear roadmap to navigate the myriad public works projects that frequently make city driving a maddening experience. Tell us where the obstacles are before we, literally, run into them.

Simple innovations such as these do not have to break the bank. Beyond compelling nearby colleges and universities to "pay up" with tax revenues to aid the city coffers, city government should pilot a volunteer corps of skilled high-tech students from top-flight schools to aid a cash-strapped City Hall. Let the best and the brightest go to work on the next round of innovations.

On election day, we heard innovative ideas like these from voters across the city outside polling places and at the victory parties. Let's hope that Mayor Menino- who prides himself on having his ear to the ground at the neighborhood level- taps into his willing citizenry to make his fourth term one of progress and not stagnation.

Goodbye to Cass

The Dorchester Reporter staff and family note with sadness this week the passing of a woman who was an important part of this newspaper for almost a decade. Charlotte Castagnola, who authored the bi-weekly column "Only Human" on these pages, died on October 24.

Writing under her pen name, "Cass," Charlotte was a warm and friendly presence who approached every column with a powerful sense of humanity and Christian charity. A graduate of Creighton University with a master's degree from the Boston College School of Social Work, she worked as a counselor for students in the Dedham public schools. She was married to the late Bob Castagnola, a professor at Boston College, and she leaves four children and three grandchildren.

Although few of our readers ever met Cass, our lives were enriched by her steady and compassionate voice, as evidenced by her writings over those many years her column appeared in this newspaper. Her family can be comforted in the knowledge that Charlotte Castagnola touched the lives of many in our neighborhood.

- Ed Forry