STATEN ISLAND — The proposed expansion of Curtis High School, which met resistance from residents who want to save an historic wall that would be torn down in the process, was approved by the City Council on Friday.
The Council voted 41 to 1 to approve the School Construction Authority's project meant to ease overcrowding at the school but will also tear down sections of the century-old stone wall that surrounds it.
"Our hearts are so broken here," said Theo Dorian, president of the St. George Civic Association who started a petition in May to save the wall. "We’re still hoping that the city will do the right thing."
The SCA plans to build a new 12,000-square-foot annex to Curtis High School that will create 345 seats and move classrooms out of two trailers in the school, a spokesman for the Department of Education previously said. The school is currently at 143-percent capacity.
Construction plans call to tear down sections of the wall on St. Mark's Place and add a new entrance to the school in its place. The DOE did not say how much would be removed, but a portion of it would be rebuilt after construction, the agency said.
After a long Land Use Committee meeting on Wednesday — where some council member argued the SCA could alter their plans to save the wall — it was eventually approved by the committee and moved to the full council, the Staten Island Advance reported.
"Overcrowding at Curtis High School has always been a concern of mine," Councilwoman Debi Rose said in a statement.
"This planned annex at Curtis addresses these two concerns and will improve education for students in the coming years. My hope is that the School Construction Authority will return to their design to see if they can save or incorporate more of the wall along St. Mark’s Place."
Curtis — the borough's first high school — was landmarked in 1982 but the wall itself was not, a spokeswoman for the Landmark Preservation Commission previously told DNAinfo New York.
Dorian, who lives in a landmarked home near the school, said that he believes the wall should be considered landmarked as part of Curtis' distinction, and will continue to fight to save it, he said.
"We are not going to give up on trying to save the stone wall," he said. "It is oldest structure on that prop, worthy of saving, and according to the law we are held to.
"The LPC have found that walls, gates and sheds and other structures on landmarks property are themselves protected," Dorian added.
