The Chicago Board of Education put off voting on the Social Justice High School—Pride Campus last month, following criticism by conservative religious groups that it was catering to “a special class” of students, and concerns by Mayor Richard Daley and some LGBT leaders that it would segregate gay students.

The new plan would see the school’s mission expanded to include all disenfranchised students and the name changed to Social Justice Solidarity High School.

The revised mission will be presented Wednesday to the Chicago Board of Education. If it is approved, it would open in 2010.

“While the school will be open to all students, its special mission will be to provide a haven where students can feel safe and valued for who they are,” the school’s new mission statement says.

“This school proposal went through a very rigorous community input process,” the group backing the school said in a media statement. The revised plan allows it to “[reach] the broadest base of support possible.”

The board put off a vote on the original plan after it was met by opposition by religious leaders and concerns from Mayor Daley.

“You have to look at whether or not you isolate and segregate children. A holistic approach has always been to have children of all different backgrounds– in schools,” Daley said in October, just before the board was to have voted.

The expanded mission is expected to win Daley’s approval.  It also has the support of one of the original plan’s biggest opponents – Rev. Wilfredo DeJesus of the New Life Covenant Church.

“I’m happy with the end result. All of the kids will win. We want to be sensitive to every child,” DeJesus told The Chicago Tribune.

But some LGBT community leaders are opposed.

“I think it’s frankly a caving in, and I think it’s unfortunate,” Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network, told The Tribune.

Last month, a national survey was released showing that nine in 10 LGBT teens have been verbally harassed in the past school year, and almost half have been physically harassed because of their sexual orientation.

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s National School Climate Survey involved 6,209 LGBT students between the ages of 13 and 21 from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Students in schools with a Gay-Straight Alliance reported hearing fewer homophobic remarks, experienced less harassment and assault because of their sexual orientation and gender expression, the study found.  In addition, these students were more likely to report incidents of harassment and assault to school staff, were less likely to feel unsafe because of their sexual orientation or gender expression, were less likely to miss school because of safety concerns and reported a greater sense of belonging to their school community.

Nevertheless, the study found only about a third of students had a Gay-Straight Alliance at school. The same number of students could identify six or more supportive educators and only a fifth attended a school that had a comprehensive safe school policy.

The first all-gay high school in the US opened in New York City in 2003, named for murdered San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk.

The mayor spoke out a day after the Chicago Board of Education put off voting on the Social Justice High School—Pride Campus.

Wednesday night, board members gave the OK to 13 other new schools, but put off a vote on the Pride Campus until Nov. 19. The vote to delay it came after two parents spoke out at the meeting against the school.

“Schools need to get out of the bedroom and back to the 3 R’s,” parent Kathy Reese, told the board. “This is why Johnny still can’t read, because the children are being used as pawns to further a political agenda. We should be helping them out of that lifestyle, not helping them into it.”

Although the school had broad gay support at earlier meetings, when the proposal was opened to public presentations, some members of the LGBT community expressed different concerns – saying they feared the school would isolate children and ill prepare them for the real world.

That also concerned the mayor, a longtime ally of the gay community.

“You have to look at whether or not you isolate and segregate children. A holistic approach has always been to have children of all different backgrounds - in schools. When you start isolating children and you say, ‘Only 50 percent here, 40 percent here’ – same thing we went through with the disabled - then you want to do that when they’re adults,” the Chicago Sun Times reported Daley as saying Thursday.

“It’s controversial. Some people are for it. Some are against it - The Board of Education has to make the decision whether it’s good for isolating children. I don’t know - I’m just saying that’s one of the problems - You start identifying them.”

The mayor’s opposition is seen as likely killing the proposal.

If it had been accepted, it would have had about 600 students with a 50-50 split of LGBT-straight students.

Earlier this month, a national survey was released showing that nine in 10 LGBT teens have been verbally harassed in the past school year, and almost half have been physically harassed because of their sexual orientation.

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s National School Climate Survey involved 6,209 LGBT students between the ages of 13 and 21 from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Students in schools with a Gay-Straight Alliance reported hearing fewer homophobic remarks, experienced less harassment and assault because of their sexual orientation and gender expression, the study found.  In addition, these students were more likely to report incidents of harassment and assault to school staff, were less likely to feel unsafe because of their sexual orientation or gender expression, were less likely to miss school because of safety concerns and reported a greater sense of belonging to their school community.

Nevertheless, the study found only about a third of students had a Gay-Straight Alliance at school. The same number of students could identify six or more supportive educators and only a fifth attended a school that had a comprehensive safe school policy.

The first all-gay high school in the US opened in New York City in 2003, named for slain San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk.