The wind is still swirling around West Virginia Academy.
That’s the name of what would have been the first charter school in the state.
It had planned on operating in the Morgantown area, drawing from students across Monongalia County and portions of neighboring Preston.
Both Mon’s and Preston’s school boards denied its application in November, however, saying the charter’s plan fell short in seven of 10 state-established benchmarks for such an institution of learning.
The academy countered, saying both boards failed to do what they were supposed to do during the review process and that the state Department of Education was a willing party.
And now, the academy, which still maintains its governing board, is taking its case to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.
While leveled at the state Department of Education, the suit contends both boards failed to meet as one while considering the academy’s plan.
Both boards, the suit says, also gave up their rights by not responding to the application by deadlines set in state policy — meaning approval by default of the document.
“It’s clear to us that West Virginia Academy’s charter was approved by operation of law several weeks before the school boards voted to reject it,” said John Treu, the academy’s president.
“Unfortunately, the West Virginia Department of Education refuses to follow the plain language of the charter law, and so our only redress at this point is through the court system.”
A storm of contention
Charter schools would bring obvious winds of change to the Mountain State’s public education system.
Those winds were literally turbulent two summers ago in Charleston when the omnibus education bill that would make such schools possible here narrowly cleared the Senate chamber.
A tornado was touching down in the Charleston area on the same evening lawmakers were making their arguments at the capitol.
The signing came after a gridlocked special legislative session on education marked by heavy protests from public school teachers and other opponents.
Charters, they argued, are traditionally driven by outside interests that steer money away from public schools.
Doing your homework
In the meantime, the 2021 Legislative session was gaveled in last week.
The House Education Committee didn’t waste time approving a new version of that contentious bill Thursday.
The amended bill, which passed 16-7, would increase the number of charter schools allowed every three years from three to 10.
It would allow for the creation of online charters, a delivery system Andrew Saultz could do without.
Saultz, who teaches educational leadership at Oregon’s Pacific University, a small, private college near Portland, studies equity and accountability issues in public schools and charter schools across the nation.
The professor who taught high school and was elected to the local school board on his way to earning his Ph.D. uses Ohio as a cautionary tale against the push for all-virtual schools.
When the largest online school in the neighboring state went dark two years ago, some 12,000 students were set adrift — just like that, he said.
In the Mountain State, Saultz urged parents and civic officials to watch the amount of money a company puts into its advertising and marketing budget for recruitment purposes.
Keep an eye on “cream-skimming,” the practice of plucking the best and brightest (read, the kids from the more affluent families) for the charter school, he said.
“I personally don’t buy into charters as being a great thing or a terrible thing,” the professor continued.
“But you need to have measurements and standards in place. It’s still about accountability.”
First test
It was all about accountability last November for both Treu and Mon Schools Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. during Mon’s BOE vote.
The academy’s 371-page application, Campbell said, “just didn’t meet the standard,” as mapped out in the legislation.
Those seven-of-10 failing marks took in everything from curriculum to compliance, the superintendent said, including “a failure” to provide full learning resources for students with special needs.
If anything is failing, Treu said, it’s West Virginia’s schools in general.
State students – including those in Mon, he said – are constantly falling short in reading and math proficiency tests.
The West Virginia Academy and its innovations, he said, could change that.
Treu said Mon administrators were “vague and largely subjective” in their critiques of the application.
“The fact that the panel of district administrators found our application to be deficient in almost every way only confirms that they would have rejected the application under every circumstance,” he said.
Under the charter school statute in West Virginia, any school wanting to open its doors must have the approval of the local school board.
Which is a big homework assignment of responsibility, Mon BOE President Nancy Walker said.
She means her county, Preston County and every other county considered by any other group wishing to launch such an academic enterprise.
“The bottom line is that we’re still responsible,” she said.
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