Dr. Carol JohnsonWhile many questions still surround the proposed relocation of Dorchester’s Boston Latin Academy, school officials insist that students will be left behind. Boston Public School superintendent Carol Johnson said that if the BLA facility is moved from Townsend Street to the Hyde Park Education Complex on Metropolitan Avenue next year, all 1,700 will have desks waiting for them.

During a conference with reporters last Friday, Johnson responded to parent’s concerns about the move and also outlined a number of new initiatives for the 2011-2012 school year.

Johnson said the idea to move Latin Academy after its 20-year stay at the Townsend Street location was sparked by a growing number of concerns parents had voiced regarding conditions at the facility.

“This past year we were meeting staff and parents and they expressed a lot of concerns, they had pages and pages of pictures of what they felt needed to be fixed,” Johnson said. “It’s a big building and they were asking for a lot of changes, so we thought it would be best to move [the school] to a more up-to-date facility.”

Johnson rebuffed concerns that the new Hyde Park facility is too small to house the entire BLA student body, saying that while the complex currently holds 1,100 students,the school’s smaller class sizes and three sets of administrative offices make the school look considerably smaller on paper.

 “The major purpose here is to make the best schools available to the most students,” Johnson said. “Lowering attendance is really counterproductive to that goal.”

During a public hearing on the proposed Latin Academy relocation held late last month, a number of parents and teachers had expressed concerns that the Hyde Park location would make student commutes more difficult. However Johnson said BPS is already looking to the MBTA to find solutions, including turning the Forest Hills Station into a new “transit hub” and pushing back class start times by 10 to 15 minutes.

While most talk of transportation centered on the Forest Hills station, BPS spokesman Matt Wilder later mentioned that the school system is planning to review its student assignment zones in order to offer parents a wider choice of schools close to home.

Although no formal plans have been established, Wilder said BPS would begin a series of public meetings this fall to discuss how parents might want to see the system, which currently divides Boston into three zones but could be extended or contracted, depending on the public’s response.

“We want to work with parents to develop a student assignment plan where everyone has access to high-quality schools,” Wilder said. “We look forward to hearing from parents and coming up with a solution that works for everyone.”

Beyond discussing Latin Academy’s possible move, Johnson also highlighted initiatives she says will better serve students in the coming year.

Johnson said her office is looking to expand school curriculums to better serve Boston’s increasingly diverse student body by developing teaching units meant to identify the contributions of various ethnic groups to the City’s culture. Noting that nearly 65 percent of all BPS teachers are white, Johnson said the new program will be as much of a learning experience for faculty as students.

BPS also plans to re-evaluate its cafeteria program in response to reports of spoiled food being served in several lunchrooms with a uniformed dating system for stored food, as well as a new focus on serving locally grown, healthier options for kids.

Finally, Johnson said the school system will begin to crack down on non-resident families who falsify information in order to send students to the city’s competitive exam schools. Although Johnson said the problem has existed “for a long time before I got here,” she said BPS would now begin to charge families for tuition costs she says they avoided by not paying city taxes.

“We are looking to strengthen our enforcement,” Johnson said. “By sending your child to our school, you’ve taken the seat of someone from the City of Boston who deserves it.”