The tremendous outpouring of support by the students, staff and alumni of DeWitt Clinton High School appears to have paid off after the Department of Education said it would not close the struggling school. A week later, however, the DOE said it would be lowering Clinton’s enrollment and co-locating two new smaller schools within Clinton’s building.

The DOE threatened to close the school after it was served its second consecutive “F” grade on the 2011-2012 progress report. The department gave the school a “B” on College and Career Readiness, but an “F” in student progress, student performance, and school environment.

“Based on the feedback from the community as well as a thorough review of multiple types of school data, the DOE decided that developing an action place will lead to the best outcome for current and future students,” DOE spokesman David Pena wrote in an e-mail.

“I’m very pleased that it will remain open, but we don’t know in what fashion,” said Gerald Pelisson, a former Clinton teacher and co-author of a book about the high school. “Just hoping the Department of Education will keep it as one school, as one building.”

Last week, the DOE said it planned to open two new small schools inside of Clinton that would share common spaces with the larger school. Those schools would begin enrolling ninth graders in the fall. The plan still must be approved by the DOE’s Panel for Education Policy, which rarely rejects a DOE proposal.

Ed. Note: The DOE will hold a public hearing on the proposal in Clinton on Thursday, Feb. 21, at 6 p.m. The Panel for Education Policy will vote on the plan at its Monday, March 11 meeting in Brooklyn Technical High School, located at 29 Fort Greene Pl., at 6 p.m.