Mayor Tom Menino outside the Mildred Avenue Middle School, which opened
Wednesday in Mattapan. Leo Huynh photo

By Bill Forry

A day before the city's newest middle school opened on Mildred Avenue in Mattapan, Mayor Tom Menino led a tour of the new facility, which includes a community center replete with a gymnasium, theater, and Olympic-sized pool. The middle school, one of three new Boston schools set to open this week, was held up as a success story for the Menino administration, which pushed for the Mattapan site despite some opposition from neighbors and the local city councillor, Charles Yancey who quarreled with the school's location.

"Everybody who comes into this building should be excited," said Menino.

The Mildred Ave. building, constructed over the last two years at a cost of $50.7 million, stretches an entire city block between Walker Playground and Babson Street. According to Boston Public School spokesman Jonathan Palumbo, first preference for seats at the new school went to former students at the Shaw Elementary School on nearby Norfolk Street, which was closed at the end of the last academic year. The first 50 percent of remaining seats were assigned to students within the Mildred Avenue walk zone, with the rest dedicated for students who live in the system's East zone.

The facility did not come without its share of controversy, however. On Tuesday, Councillor Yancey, now engaged in a tough re-election fight against challenger Ego Ezedi, spoke favorably about the school's opening during a speaking program organized by the Mayor's office. Yancey spoke at the conference despite the fact that he was not scheduled to be part of the official event. After the news conference, however, Yancey told the Reporter that he still thinks that the siting of the Mildred Ave. facility was flawed. When the City Council voted to approve the funding for the school and community center three years ago, Yancey cast his vote against the project.

"I did not agree with the siting because it was problematic," said Yancey, naming the presence of hazardous waste on the property and its proximity to the Fairmount commmuter rail corridor as his main objections. The clean-up of the property, Yancey claims, added as much as $5 million to the project's cost. Yancey is also concerned about the impact of the estimated daily arrival of 1,000 students, teachers and other visitors on abutters.

"This wasn't just a question of NIMBY [not-in-my-backyard]. It just wasn't a very good community process as far as the siting goes," said Yancey, who is advocating for a new high school to be built on the grounds of the old Boston State Hospital along Morton Street.

Ego Ezedi, Yancey's chief rival in the September 23 primary election, said that Yancey's opposition to the Mildred Avenue facility was a good example of why the 20-year council veteran should be replaced this year.

"I think you have to look at the big picture," Ezedi says. "Would you rather have what was here before? Something is better than nothing. [Yancey] was willing to veto this project and have it fall through, when Mattapan needs a community center so our kids can have a place to go? That's the type of leadership that we don't need."

City officials used the setting of the Mildred Ave. school's computer lab as a backdrop for a larger news conference touting the city's readiness for the new school year. Most of the city's 62,000 public school students returned to class on Wednesday morning.

The Mildred Ave. Middle School was preparing to welcome 756 students for its first bell. An open house for the general public and parents will be held at the building on Thursday, Sept. 11 from 5-8 p.m., according to Principal Shirley Allen.