Excerpt:
An education panel voted Monday night to approve big changes for a controversial Arabic-themed public school in Brooklyn.
The Khalil Gibran International Academy was met with a firestorm of criticism when it opened as a dual-language middle school in 2007. Its founders said it would teach a diverse student body about Arabic language and culture. But opponents charged it would promote Islamic extremism. The school saw high staff turnover, cycling through four principals since its founding.
But its biggest problem ended up being low enrollment, education officials said. Only 111 students study there now and the school never attracted many native speakers of Arabic.