Civics lesson

West Roxbury's Lyndon School has become a political football that's stalling the entire municipal budget

by Yvonne Abraham

This story begins happily enough. A bunch of dedicated parents, locals, and politicians band together to take a broken, abandoned old school in an otherwise handsome neighborhood and bring it back to life. The result is so good that dozens of parents, their faith in city education restored, put their kids on a waiting list for places. The student body expands according to plan.

Then come the problems. The school building is too small. The neighbors don't want it made bigger. The parents feel betrayed. The kids have to be split up. The local reps take sides. The little school becomes a political football, kicked around with extra zeal because this is, after all, an election year. Eventually, the neighborhood dispute over adding an extension to the school building freezes up the municipal budget, which keeps funds away from capital projects, including other schools, all over Boston. Everyone is angry.

Two old saws of late 20th century Boston: its public schools suck, and city councilors have no pull. In this case, neither is true. The Patrick F. Lyndon pilot school, in West Roxbury, is, after just two years, one of the best public elementary schools in the city. And Councilor Maura Hennigan, who represents the district, is chair of the Ways and Means Committee; at budget time that means major clout. Hennigan, who helped found the new Lyndon, sees the pilot school as a personal achievement. She has an enormous emotional attachment to it, wants the extension, and has managed to hold up the city's capital budget pending an assurance from Mayor Tom Menino that the school will get it. Councilor Dan Conley (who represents nearby District Five) is equally determined that the expansion should not go ahead, and has been building a coalition that will remove it from the budget debate completely. The Lyndon's fate depends on which of the councilors can form a majority. And this year, how the councilors stack up on the Lyndon issue will have as much to do with grudges and cliques on the fifth floor of City Hall as with the neighbors and students on Russett Street in West Roxbury.

Part 2

Yvonne Abraham can be reached at yabraham[a]phx.com.