Where houses slated, school dreams

The movement just keeps on growing, says City Councilor Charles Yancey. Every week, in places as disparate as public meetings and coffee shops, his petition asking for a new high school at the former Boston State Hospital site draws more signatures.

Yancey's office estimates that the number of names on the petition exceeds 1,000. With signatures in hand, Yancey plans to approach the City Council sometime this month for a loan order to start building a new school on the property next July.

Yancey said some of Boston's high schools are outdated as well as overcrowded, and the need for a new high school in the city looms larger than ever.

''With the city being home to some of the most prestigious universities, I think it's a shame we are sending our children to inferior buildings," he said.

Though Boston had set aside 20 acres of the land for a new high school, Mayor Thomas Menino waived the city's right to the property and reached an agreement with Governor Mitt Romney in February to turn it over to housing developer Stony Brook, LLC. The agreement also includes a plan to sell another 35 acres of the property to a different developer, creating a total of 500 new housing units.

In a press release this February, Menino called the deal ''a winning combination, creating a multitude of new housing and economic opportunities in the area."

Repeated calls to the mayor's office last week asking for comment on the proposal to use the site for a school were not returned.

Some neighborhood residents and officials, in Mattapan especially, continue to voice displeasure with the housing idea.

''There's just too many people in the area already," said Mabel Graham, a parent and president of the Mattapan Civic Association. ''It would be a disaster to have all that housing here. There's certainly a need for things other than housing."

Owen Toney, parent organizer for the Boston branch of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, said the 20-acre site is perhaps the last parcel of land in the city where Boston could still build a high school.

''If we lose it, we don't really have another place to go," he said.

With an increase in funding for school building assistance added to the state budget for fiscal year 2005, Yancey hopes the City Council will be more inclined to overturn the development plan and approve a loan order for the new high school this month.

City Councilor Robert Consalvo, who represents part of Mattapan, knows many residents there prefer a high school but says he's keeping an ''open mind."

''It's easy to say let's put a high school there," he said. ''In reality, there are questions that need to be answered, such as whether the state will reimburse us. I'm open to the idea [of a high school at the State Hospital site], but I need to be convinced."

Jonathan Palumbo, spokesman for the Boston public schools, said the school department supports a school at the Mattapan site, but is skeptical of that happening.

''Any new projects are at the bottom of that list," he said. ''And there's no indication from the state that they are going to keep that program as robust as it was in the mid- to late '90s."