$43M Pre‑K Hub To Bear Mayo’s Name

When the city tears down the former Helene Grant School and rebuilds it as a new early learning center, it will bear the name of the man who grew the city’s pre‑K program and oversaw a decades-long effort to redo city schools.

Call it the Dr. Reginald Mayo Early Childhood School.

The New Haven school board has chosen that name for a $43 million project underway at 185 Goffe St. The city plans to tear down the abandoned Helene Grant School (pictured) in the spring and build a new pre‑K center serving 565 children, according to schools Chief Operating Officer Will Clark.

The board voted unanimously Tuesday to name the school after Mayo, who retired in July after 21 years as superintendent of New Haven schools.

The city has hired a local architect, Ken Boronson, to design the new building, which is set to be complete in December of 2015, according to Clark.

The new building will house students from the district’s four main pre‑K programs that aren’t attached to schools: Helene Grant, which serves 266 kids; the Early Learning Center at 495 Blake St., which serves 118; Zigler Head Start at 81 Olive St., serving 124 kids; and Dwight Head Start at 1324 Chapel St., which serves 46.

The new building will house a consolidated pre‑K program as well as the pre‑K registration office, which now sits at the Board of Education headquarters at 54 Meadow St. The city would build a new, 63,000 square-foot building at the former Helene Grant site, with a new 2,500 square-foot administration wing for registration.

Helene Grant has been moved to a swing space at 560 Ella Grasso Boulevard until construction is complete.

The idea of naming it after Mayo arose from a ​“renaming committee.” The committee, represented Tuesday by Hill Alderwoman Jackson-Brooks, reviewed the names of the city’s 47 schools and suggested replacing Helene Grant’s name with Mayo’s.

She read aloud a proposed resolution that would do just that. In it, she cited Mayo’s 46 years of service in New Haven public schools, first as a science teacher at Troup Middle School—click here to read more about his life and career.

Jackson-Brooks also credited Mayo with growing New Haven’s pre‑K program. Under his tenure, New Haven expanded Head Start from 400 spots to 1,700. The city now offers 3,000 total pre‑K seats, including school readiness, Head Start and magnet school spots, making it the largest pre‑K program in the state, according to district officials.

She also credited Mayo for his role in carrying out Mayor John DeStefano’s $1.6 billion school rebuilding program, which aims to rebuild or renovate every city school. The program has redone 37 schools so far; the pre‑K hub is one of the last few projects in the pipeline.

Since his retirement in July, Mayo has remained active in town. He just took a volunteer post on Mayor-Elect Toni Harp’s transition team.

In remarks Tuesday, teachers union President Dave Cicarella and schools Superintendent Garth Harries both endorsed the name change.

Harries said Helene Grant, an educator, had two schools bearing her name: Helene Grant and Wexler/Grant. She said the district has agreed to do more outreach at Wexler/Grant to make sure the school community knows who she was.