Peters Township school directors consider charter school application
A charter school in the Bethel Park School District that was forced to close after two months in operation is seeking a new home in multiple school districts, including Peters Township.
Beth Opat, founder of Dogwood Charter School, appeared before the board of school directors Monday evening for a public hearing. Elected officials did not render a decision, and continued the hearing to an unscheduled date in 2025.
In 2023 the school was approved to operate in the Bethel Park School District this school year. Bethel Park oversaw the school as authorizer.
They had been at an old church building on Madison Avenue, but Opat explained zoning issues led to an abrupt closure toward the end of October.
“The township felt that we were changing the use and needed our own separate occupancy … They were not willing to allow us to stay there unless we brought everything up to current educational code, which we knew was not able to be a possibility,” Opat said.
According to Opat, 72 K-8 students who had enrolled either moved to home school, cyberschool or back to their home district.
Opat told the school board that Dogwood is looking for a home in one of four districts – Peters Township, Bethel Park, Baldwin or West Jefferson Hills – and is still trying to find a suitable building.
School directors appeared somewhat skeptical, wondering how Dogwood could guarantee students would not be put in the same predicament, and why the school was applying in multiple districts.
“If you find a building in another district, are you just going to withdraw your application then?” asked school Director Lisa Anderson.
Opat replied that it wouldn’t be her decision to make, but clarified it is not their intention to open multiple schools.
Dogwood Charter School operates under the philosophies of English educator Charlotte Mason, with a focus on “relational education” and the relationships between students and the subjects they are learning.
“Charlotte Mason was very much about, ‘They will take in what they can take and what they can’t, they won’t, and as the years progress they take in more each time on the topic,'” Opat said.
According to Opat, many of the students who attended Dogwood struggled in traditional education environments. Many of them are neurodivergent and diagnosed with conditions such as ADHD.
During public comment, multiple parents in the Peters Township School District who were sending their children to Dogwood spoke highly of their family’s experience with the school.
“I’m also a mom to neurodevelopmental differences that are across the spectrum,” said Heather Machin. “My younger two were the ones who started at Dogwood this year. I don’t want to get emotional here, but the difference in them was night and day coming off of the bus.”
The school board has not yet scheduled a date for the continued hearing.