Instead of reinventing the school, I think we need to be thinking outside the school. The institution of school comes with a whole host of problems that are just systemic to the idea of everybody reporting to a central location and being primarily segregated by age. Not that you can't get a decent education in school, because many of us did.

We don't need the best and brightest teachers. We need the most passionate and dedicated teachers. Passion trumps intelligence for teachers just about every time. The best teachers don't teach so much as they light the fire in a kid to learn. It's a subtle but important difference.

If I were designing better schools I'd stick with the basic group format up through about 8th grade, then go to a community college type model where every kid could branch off to follow their interests. The universe of stuff that everybody needs to know is much smaller than most people presume. Everybody needs to write well, read well, and handle math up through about Algebra I. After that, it is all electives. So after about 8th grade, when the 3 Rs should be solid in most kids, let them do what they want. That is how we handled our kids educations (we homeschooled) and it worked out very well. HSing is not an option for most, but the "system" can learn a lot from what works for homeschoolers.