Responding to an outcry from parents, the city yesterday dropped plans to have a Brooklyn elementary school share its building with a new Arabic-language secondary school.
Education officials insisted the decision not to house the Khalil Gibran International Academy with PS 282 in Park Slope was logistical and unrelated to controversy surrounding the new school’s concept, which some critics had attacked as a disguise for radical Islam.
The officials said the Department of Education was still committed to opening the school.
The proposal had sparked a flurry of heated protests in recent weeks from the PS 282 community, which argued the academy would enlarge class sizes and force the closure of art rooms and science and computer labs.
David Cantor, press secretary to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, said it was determined that Khalil Gibran “would be detrimental to [PS 282’s] core academic programs.”
News of the decision was greeted with a sigh of relief from parent leaders.
“The needs of a middle school are completely different from the needs of an elementary school, and we were going to have to give up a lot,” said Xiomara Fraser, co-president of the PTA. “It was about literally losing our school.”
The principal of Khalil Gibran, Debbie Almontaser, said the parents’ concerns were “valid” and that she was not disappointed with the outcome.