The planned co-location of a Success Academy Charter School in a Far Rockaway school building that already houses two middle schools and an alternative learning center has roused community opposition.

Parents, educators and students from MS 53 and Village Academy, the two schools already in the building, as well as parents and educators from surrounding elementary schools that feed into them and local politicians, made their dissatisfaction known at a school-based hearing on Nov. 17.

The Panel for Educational Policy approved the co-location at its Nov. 19 monthly meeting.

MS 53 Chapter Leader Lucia Moffa said she fears the co-location could sabotage attempts to turn around her struggling school, which this year became a community school as part of the city’s School Renewal Program. MS 53 had planned to open mental health, optical and dental clinics to serve the students and their families, but now will not have the space.

“Our children need those services that come with being a community school,” Moffa said.

The Department of Education also intends to close the building’s alternative learning center to make room for the charter school.

Many in the community also have expressed concern about moving an elementary school into a building with older students. For years, there has been a community-led movement in Far Rockaway to break up K–8 schools into distinct elementary and middle schools.

“I think they should find another building,” said Village Academy Chapter Leader Darlene Marcellus-Michel. “We have 14-, 15-, 16-, 17-year-olds in the building. I don’t think it’s safe for the younger kids.”

For Donna Hamlet, the parent association president at MS 53, the issues are community needs and input. If they are going to bring in another school, she said, it should be a high school.

“At no time did we ask for another elementary school, and we were never asked if we wanted it,” Hamlet said.