Day Of The Living Dedication

New Haven dedicated a new school to a local leader who’s not only still living and breathing — but, in an unexpected twist, back at the helm of the system.

The dedication took place Sunday at the $51 million Dr. Reginald Mayo Early Learning School on Goffe Street.

The city decided to name the planned school — which serves over 500 3 and 4‑year-olds — after Mayo in 2013 when he retired after 21 years as the school system’s superintendent.

Then, just this month, after his successor was pushed out of his job, Mayo volunteered and was then chosen to step back in the role for up to 174 days until New Haven finds a permanent replacement next spring or summer.

So an event that usually takes place after a public figure has left the public scene (if not the scene, period) took on an unusual twist.

New Haven has rebuilt almost all its schools since the late 1990s. Former Mayor John DeStefano — whose 20 years in office overlapped with Mayo’s superintendent tenure — noted during a heartfelt tribute at Sunday’s event that only one other of the 41 those rebuilt or newly constructed schools has been named after someone still living: former Mayor John C. Daniels, who has since died.

An overflow crowd of hundreds of former colleagues and community members listened inside the school’s multi-purpose room to tributes to Mayo before Sunday’s official ribbon-cutting. For the most part, they focused on the past tense — on Mayo’s 50-year New Have public school career working his way up from teacher to superintendent.

Mayor Toni Harp noted that Mayo for decades focused on boosting pre-school and early education in general at a time when the legal age for starting school was still 7. So it’s fitting that the state’s largest public pre-school will bear his name, she said.

“He knew before the science that young people’s brains develop early and they can do things earlier” than we had realized, Harp said.

In his own remarks, Mayo spoke about how his mother, who had dropped out of school in 8th grade, raised him and his two brothers alone in public housing in Richmond, Virginia. She insisted he work hard at school, follow rules, ​“deep clean” their home on the weekends.

“I know she’s up there somewhere smiling,” Mayo said.

Teachers union President David Cicarella spoke of how ​“Reggie came in” to the top school job after a controversial period in the system, ​“steadied the waters, brought people together.” ​“He always held us accountable, as he should,” Cicarella added.

He spoke in the past tense. Left unspoken was the fact that Mayo temporarily returns to that task this week.

Apparent — or unintended? — references to the new challenges that Mayo and the schools face, and to a new period of political conflict that led to the sudden mid-year departure of Mayo’s successor, crept into the tributes.

DeStefano, for instance, spoke of how whenever he and Mayo disagreed over the years, they never let it ​“become a distraction to everybody else” and hurt ​“the kids.”

“If we ever get confused about that,” he added, ” we need to get out.”

In praising state legislators for obtaining the money to rebuild over 40 city schools, Harp, during a shout-out to incoming State Rep. Al Paolillo of the East Shore, noted: ​“I think we have three more schools [to rebuild], Al. Maybe you can help us get that done. I think there’s one on the east side.”

United Way CEO Jennifer Heath spoke of the need to fill the new Mayo pre-school’s library with books. She announced that her organization’s ​“Women United” group has vowed to raise the money to fully stock it. (You can contribute to the campaign here.)

Amid the hugs and accolades after the ceremony, Mayo was asked how it felt to receive the ultimate honor for his public-school career the same week he unexpectedly returns to the superintendent’s office.

“I’m as excited,” he responded, ​“as when I first became superintendent.”