Tonight at a meeting in Brooklyn, the Panel for Education Policy, the 13-member body controlled by the mayor’s office that must approve major changes and proposals by the city’s Department of Education, will decide the fate of dozens of city schools, including DeWitt Clinton, the largest and one of the most storied high schools in the Bronx.

Toward the end of 2012, the DOE first discussed possibly closing, or “phasing out,” Clinton all together, but then pulled that plan off the table after encountering blistering opposition from the school community, including it’s star-studded alumni.

As an alternative, the DOE proposed opening up (or “co-locating”) two smaller schools inside Clinton’s building, often called the “Castle on Mosholu Parkway.” But teachers, alumni, union reps, local school activists and elected officials have all said co-locating schools inside Clinton will immediately take away from the school’s ability to serve it’s diverse student population and ultimately lead to Clinton’s demise.

“First they’re going to shrink it,” said Marvin Shelton, the president of the local community education council for District 10, a volunteer body that oversees school issues in the area. “Then they’re going to kill it.”

Other large schools in the Bronx have closed soon after the DOE began co-locating schools on the same campus, including Walton, Evander Childs, Roosevelt and Morris. John F. Kennedy in Marble Hill remains just one of several small schools on its campus and serves only about 400 students. At 3,504 students, Clinton is largest public high school in the Bronx.

At a public hearing on Feb. 21, opponents of the co-location plan at Clinton came out to voice their opposition. Alan Ettman, the school’s union leader, said the auditorium was about three-quarters full, a drop in enthusiasm from a December hearing on the school’s possible closure.

Still, Ettman and other opponents were clear: they didn’t believe the co-locations would help Clinton improve. Ettman, who taught at the now-defunct Walton High School, said he watched as the new schools co-located inside Walton received all the love, attention and resources, while Walton deteriorated and eventually closed. He fears the same will happen to Clinton.

Since Mayor Bloomberg took over the city’s public school system in 2002, the DOE has placed an emphasis on closing larger schools and replacing them with smaller schools. While many of the new schools have proved successful, critics say it’s been at the expense of larger schools, such as Clinton.

The larger schools have become refuges for struggling students who aren’t prepared to handle high school work, critics say. At Clinton, 20 percent of students are considered special education students who need more help keeping up, and 19 percent of its students are English Language Learners who struggle with English.

Ettman says it’s simple. Before Bloomberg, Clinton was considered one of the top high school’s in the entire country. Now, Bloomberg’s panel wants to shrink it’s enrollment to about 2,250 and incubate two entirely separate schools within Clinton’s building.

Late last week, Lehman High School, which the DOE had already shrunk by adding two new small schools in its building and was slated for closure at tonight’s meeting, received a last minute reprieve. But the DOE still plans to add three more small schools onto its campus, shrinking the school further.

A group of four panel members, all appointed by borough presidents, have introduced a resolution that would put a moratorium on school closings and co-locations. It will be voted on tonight as well. But since the panel is made up of eight members appointed by the mayor, the resolution appears to be a long shot.

Editor’s note: The PEP meets at 6 p.m. at Brooklyn Technical High School, located at 29 Fort Greene Place.