By Shayla Love

At their general meeting on Feb. 18, Community Board 7 voted to write a letter of support for Atmosphere Charter School, which hopes to open a facility in the recently closed Our Lady of Mercy School building at 2512 Marion Ave. in Fordham, foregoing any public space.

The school’s founding team first met with the board in October last year to present the school’s model. Colin Greene, a founder, said that he will include CB7’s letter of support in their application along with a letter from Community 6, which serves East Tremont, Bathgate, Belmont and West Farms. CB6’s borders overlap with District 10.

Greene said that hundreds of District 10 parents signed a petition for the school and that Atmosphere has received support from Fordham, Montefiore Medical Center and Mosholu Montefiore Community Center as well.

There were two dissenters at the meeting who had concerns about focusing on a new charter school, which typically are for-profit entities. Greene has assured Atmosphere is a non-profit organization, incorporated as “an educational charity with New York State and will have 501(c)3 status with the IRS.” That status is pending approval. Should it be approved, Atmosphere will manage the school itself without any help from any charter management organization.

Andrew Laiosa voted against the resolution, charging the many unanswered questions relating to the school as it pertained to budget, how many District 10 students it would serve and whether finding a charter school answers the issue of overcrowding in District 10 public schools. Greene said that the school will help to ease District 10’s burdens by offering students and parents another high-quality educational option. He said that District 10 only has one middle school charter option, and Atmosphere will address this concern.

He emphasized that the school will have admission preference for District 10 students. The school’s goal is to admit 120 new 6th graders per year. If all 120 applicants come from District 10, Atmosphere will not admit any students from other districts.

Adaline Walker-Santiago, CB7 chair, said the Board’s near unanimous support is because of Atmosphere’s focus on special education and English Language Learners (ELL) programming. They will offer these students smaller class sizes and multiple teachers that would not be available in public schools. Atmosphere will also provide gifted and general education programs.

The choice to come to District 10 was based on educational need revealed by data gathered by the Board of Trustees, according to Greene. He said that the funding is coming currently from the members of the Board of Trustees and the Founding team, who have established a foundation to help with the fundraising.

The Board of Trustees includes Reverend Thomas Lynch, the Pastor of Our Lady of Angels, Dr. Migdalia Maldonado-Torres, who was a Local Instructional Superintendent in Community School District 10, Nethaneel Cleary and educator in District 10, Grant Grastorf, a Fordham University administrator, and Christian Roman, the Dean of Students at a Bronx high school. If chartered, the school would be funded through revenue generated by student enrollment.