By Nicole Breskin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CHELSEA — After nearly a year of wrangling between parents and the city, the Panel for Education Policy has voted to relocate the Clinton School for Writers and Artists to a new building owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.
The agreement hinged on a controversial condition sought by the Archdiocese that sex education classes will not be held within the new building at 425 W. 33rd St., which is currently occupied by St. Michael’s Academy. The move involves a seven-year, $11.2-million lease agreement with the Archdiocese.
"We're pleased with the panel's approval,” Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the Department of Education, said Wednesday. He said the department looks forward "to supporting Clinton students and families in their new space next school year."
The temporary move is part of the city’s broader plan to alleviate overcrowding, namely at P.S. 11 in Chelsea where the Clinton School is currently housed.
The Clinton School is slated to permanently move to 10 E. 15th St. by the fall of 2015.
The city’s original plan, made public on Jan. 8, had the school moving into the P.S. 33 site, which would have displaced a special-needs school situated in the building. A second option would have had the Clinton School move to the American Sign Language and English Secondary School, which educators and parents also felt could harm a special-needs population.
“This is the best possible move for all the communities involved,” said school parent Diana Darling, who is also on the Clinton School's Relocation Committee.
Despite an outcry from civil liberties activists, she said the committee was not concerned about locating sex-education classes off-campus, stating that the space at St. Michael’s will allow the Clinton School to add an extra sixth grade class.
The space at St. Michael’s was made available after the 136-year-old school at the location announced in late March that it would close at the end of the year.
