Dogwood Charter School hopes to open in Ringgold

A public hearing will take place Wednesday evening for the school, which has also submitted applications to four other area districts.

Ringgold will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. Wednesday for a charter school that is looking to potentially open within the bounds of the district.

Ringgold is one of the five districts where Dogwood Charter School has expressed interest in setting up a permanent location.

According to the charter school’s application, it has outlined a 31-acre property, which includes a ranch home and farmhouse, on Banahasky Lane in Union Township as a place to set up the school.

The school has also submitted applications to Bethel Park, Peters Township, Baldwin and West Jefferson Hills school districts.

During the Dec. 4 school board meeting, Ringgold Superintendent Randall Skrinjorich questioned if the school intends to open.

“As you can read in the letter that was received, this place has been hopping all over the place, from Bethel Park to (West Jefferson Hills) to Peters Township and now to us. Just reading that letter, you’re like, ‘Are you even going to open up at the end of the day?’” Skrinjorich said.

The charter launched petitions on Change.org for each district where it has applied to approve its application. The Ringgold petition had 15 signatures as of press time.

The charter plans to implement small class sizes, according to its application. It will begin with kindergarten through eighth grade, and then expand to ninth through 12th grades in a couple of years.

The application also states “at least 75% of the faculty will be certified or licensed teachers.”

The charter aims to become a nonsectarian Charlotte Mason Institute accredited program.

District stakeholders may submit comments or questions to the charter school by emailing board Secretary Kimberley Moore at kmoore@ringgold.org.

The district will livestream the public hearing on its You-Tube channel.