West Harlem residents are angry that plans for a new public school pledged as part of Columbia University's massive expansion have been scaled back, according to an article by Erin Durkin in today's edition of The New York Daily News.

"Columbia promised in 2007 to create a new pre-kindergarten to eighth grade school as part of a benefits agreement for residents affected by its plans to build a new campus in Manhattanville," the article said, but officials said last week the school would only include kindergarten through fifth grade."

The article added that "the school, called Teachers College Elementary and set to open in the fall, will be located for its first year in East Harlem - across town from the affected neighborhood."

Community Board 9 chairman Larry English told The News that "A deal is a deal; it's a violation of the spirit of the agreement. This project will forever alter West Harlem. Columbia owes a greater debt to the community."

Teachers College and city Department of Education officials said they had to scrap plans for a pre-K-8 school because there's no space available big enough to house it, the article said, adding that Teachers College spokesman Jim Gardner said "It really is all about space," and that Teachers College Elementary would only be in the East Harlem space for a year, and then hoped to open in a permanent spot in West Harlem.

"It is a temporary site. That's temporary in capital letters. It was space that was assigned to us by DOE. We had no hand in this," he said. "It is our hope and our expectation that the permanent site will be in West Harlem."

Locals, who were presented with the plan at a CB9 meeting last week, also griped that the school would only take kids from District 5 - which covers a chunk of West Harlem but is mostly in East and central Harlem, the article said.

"It was a shocker," said board member Vicky Gholson. "It's not that Teachers College is the enemy or that Columbia is the enemy (but) it just makes no sense."

The city's Panel for Educational Policy is set to vote on the 300-student school today, the article said. Even without the much-needed middle school and pre-K seats, Gardner said "it's going to be a great school and it's going to deliver and create an enormous community benefit." The school, for which Columbia pledged $30 million, was part of a $150 million deal Columbia agreed to in 2007 to gain support for its controversial expansion plans.