PORTLAND — The West School, a small school for children with emotional disabilities that has outgrown its space on Douglas Street, will be moving to the former Cathedral School at 307 Congress St.

The School Board is expected to approve a 20-year lease for the 22,500-square-foot space formerly used by the Catholic school, which closed earlier this year.

The West School and Portland Adult Education now share space on Douglas Street. The move will allow Adult Education to consolidate all its operations at Douglas Street, and provide the West School with space to expand.

Adult Education has offices at Riverton Community School that may be converted to preschool classrooms, something that was proposed last spring when the School Department was considering moving the West School to the Woodfords Congregational Church.

That move was scrapped in June when the church membership overwhelmingly rejected a lease with the district.

The School Department’s multilingual office, which has moved twice since 2003 and is now at Lyman Moore Middle School, will also move to the Cathedral  School space, giving the office the downtown space that will help it better serve its students.

Administrators from the West School and the School Department’s central office did not return several requests for comment.

Emily Parkhurst can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 125 or eparkhurst@theforecaster.net. Follow her on Twitter: @emilyparkhurst.

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