Since 2007, the West Village community has demanded and planned for a new middle school. The middle school, located at 75 Morton Street (between Hudson and Greenwich), even got a number, M.S. 297; its first class of sixth graders was set to enter the school in September of 2017.
However, on October 25, 2016, the NYC Department of Education announced a one-year delay “due to unforeseen structural steel conditions that could present significant safety concerns”.
The Department of Education is proposing that an incoming sixth grade class be chosen anyway, and that the students attend the Clinton School for Writers and Artists, also a brand new school, at 10 East 15th Street, just west of Union Square.
The irony here is that the City allocated money for this school to “make up” for its approval of the Rudin condos on the old St. Vincent’s Hospital site. Yet, the condos, built from scratch, will be fully open before the school, while the school, built in an existing building, is delayed.
—Arthur Z. Schwartz
