With local schools set to get started next week, those attending a satellite charter school in Dugger are feeling the pangs of waiting.
Dugger Union Community School Corp. and Indiana Cyber Charter School have set Aug. 25 as the first day of class in a school that will replace Dugger Elementary and Union Junior/Senior High schools after they closed in May.
“We’re in the process of doing the finalizing on (hiring) the teachers,” said DUCSC director Greg Ellis, adding those teachers will then need to undergo training for technology IN Cyber uses in place of traditional school methods.
IN Cyber and DUCSC have been working together since June after DUCSC’s failed attempt at seeking authorization through the Indiana Charter School Board to operate its own school.
Jointly, they have hosted a few enrollment events, and Ellis said they will likely see between 275 and 300 students attend this year.
However, because Northeast and Southwest school corps. and Rural Community Academy plan to open roughly three weeks before Dugger’s school, the community was becoming restless.
To wit, IN Cyber and DUCSC hosted an information hearing for the public Thursday morning.
“They’re not hearing a lot of information from us and that kind of scares them a little,” Ellis said. “But we have a timeline for all the necessary steps that need to happen,”
One of the biggest hurdles was obtaining the facility that housed DES/UHS from NESC. Ellis said that, on Thursday, the building became available through registry of unused school buildings that charter schools can lease.
“It should have already been sent by our attorney,” Ellis said of their application to lease the facility.
“In the event that building acquisition would be delayed ... we do have a plan B in place,” he added.
This includes various local businesses, town-owned buildings, the park’s shelter houses, local fraternal orders and churches who have agreed to house classes.
“We’ve actually got commitments for far more space than we need,” Ellis added.
But Ellis doesn’t foresee needing to use those options.
“We’re fully expecting to get the building quickly ... and have it ready to go on the 25th,” he said.
Copyright Kelk Publishing