A new beginning
A Donora church has a reuse plan for the closed Donora Elementary Center if it can acquire the building from Ringgold School District.
The Rev. Christopher T. Conti, pastor of First Baptist Church in Donora, makes a pitch Wednesday for Ringgold School Board to donate a closed school in the borough to his congregation.
NEW EAGLE – A Donora minister wants to use the closed Donora Elementary Center in the Ringgold School District as a church, with long-range plans of also making it a community and medical center.
The Rev. Christopher T. Conti, pastor of First Baptist Church, pitched the idea of donating the old school Wednesday to the Ringgold School Board, which closed the building at 401 Waddell Ave. and another in Monongahela two years ago when the district opened a new elementary school in Carroll Township.
“This all grew out of a Bible study, that you have to have a dream and declare it,” said Conti, who also is an emergency room physician.
Conti, of Pittsburgh, said the small congregation had yet to identify a cost or funding source for the ambitious project, which also would create recreational opportunities in the Mon Valley borough.
Ringgold Solicitor Timothy R. Berggren said the district cannot give the school away to a church under the terms of the Pennsylvania School Code. The district can donate the school to a municipality, historical society or volunteer fire department. The building, he said, could be sold to a church for a price that would need approval from Washington County Court.
In other business, the board is considering a proposal to change the class schedule at the high school from two semesters to trimesters and reduce the day from eight periods to six in order to create more hours of instruction without extending the calendar.
The board also hired William Hoffman as director of buildings and grounds, at a salary of $71,500 a year, and considered the creation of a curriculum director position.
Meanwhile, the board canceled a budget workshop Wednesday on a $39.4 million tentative budget for the next term that does not include a real estate tax increase.
Randy Skrinjorich, the district’s business manager, said the district will save money through the retirements of nine teachers and receive an increase of $188,000 in state funding next term.
The budget is expected to be adopted when the board meets at 7 p.m. June 19 in the district’s administration building in New Eagle.