The makers of a movie, "Righteous Kill," also want to turn Harding High School's weight room into a precinct gym, its faculty men's room into a night club bathroom and the school's main gym into, well, a high school gym, only set in New York City.

The Board of Education this week gave permission for the filming as long as Supt. of Schools John Ramos gets assurances that classes won't be disrupted.

"We are doing far too much work at Harding to establish a tone. We don't want outside concerns disrupting. The extent to which this can be done without this occurring, is the extent to which we will be comfortable," Ramos told the school board.

The superintendent said the film company promised there would only be some preparations during the day, but no actual filming until students go home. "Righteous Kill" is the latest in a series of movies to be filmed in the Park City over the last few months, lured here by new state tax incentives. It's the second movie featuring De Niro to be filmed in the city; in May, he shot scenes here for a movie co-starring Sean Penn. Others doing Bridgeport shoots include Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, Martin Lawrence, and Steven Seagal.

The school district stands to get $2,000 a day from the filmmakers for renting the Harding facilities and $1,000 a day for McKinley. In addition, Harding stands to reap a $2,500-a-day fee for each day of filming there, while McKinley would directly get a $1,500 daily donation. The movie crew will also pay any school district expenses related to the filming and give another $1,000 for any prep days.

The filming is expected to take place Sept. 6 through 10 and on Sept. 24 at Harding and on Oct. 1 at McKinley.

Ramos told the school board that although the title of the suspense thriller gave him some pause, he has been assured "Righteous Kill" is a working title for the movie that won't be its name when it is released to theaters.

David Diamond, a location manager on the film, told Ramos the title refers to police officers' jargon used when a bad guy is shot by a cop in the course of duty.

Diamond also told Ramos the only facility that will be recognizable to those familiar with it will be Harding's gym, where Pacino and De Niro will film a scene in which they talk to a basketball coach described as "an African-American man in his 50s."

"I wonder who that could be," Sauda Baraka, a board member said in apparent reference to Harding's coach, Charles Bentley, as people in the audience laughed.

Ramos said the crew wants to use existing graphics in the gym, but could cover them if school officials prefer they not be a backdrop for the scene.

Board member Maximino Medina Jr. said his only concern is that the schools not be depicted poorly in the movie.

"If it is, I think we should tell them use another school. Of course, if they're offering us $3 million, I might reconsider," he said.

In a letter to Ramos, Diamond said nothing in the movie would be derogatory to the schools in particular or the city of Bridgeport.