SOMERVILLE, Mass. (AP) – The $16.4 million Capuano Early Childhood Center which opened last September has been plagued by faulty ventilation and a soggy gym after heavy rains, parents report, but they say the latest problem is mice.

Lisa Mulcahey, outgoing school PTA president, said she was horrified when her 6-year-old son talked of pet “gerbils” he saw scurrying around the floor. The gerbils turned out to be mice.

Mulcahey also said teachers complained during summer school of mouse droppings on desks and in drawers.

“It’s a brand new building. It’s ridiculous,” Mulcahey told the Boston Herald.

Capuano principal Susan Collins, a 30-year-old school veteran who took over as principal in July, said that teachers recently told her the problems were so bad that mice were “literally running across the floors in a classroom.”

Three weeks ago, school officials filed a pest management report with the state, listing “rats and mice” as pests that have “historically and/or currently been a problem” at Capuano.

Collins also said in the past week she has met with the local board of health and top maintenance officials to attack the problem of mice.

Mike Foley, who managed the school’s construction and now oversees maintenance of Somerville’s school facilities, initially said there were no problems, the Herald said, but later blamed the mice infestation on teachers leaving food out.

A spokesman for Mayor Joseph Curtatone said he has been so upset with overall maintenance at the city’s schools that he won the right in July to have custodians under city jurisdiction.

“We don’t underestimate that there is a problem (at Capuano) that needs to be addressed,” said mayoral spokesman Mark Horan. “The mayor is vehement about doing that.”

The school, which houses 400 children ages 3 to 7, opens for the new school year on Sept. 8.

AP-ES-09-01-04 0432EDT