MORGANTOWN — It took nearly 13 months, but the Wisdom Academy charter school planned for 13 South High St. has cleared the Morgantown Planning Commission.
The body voted 6-1 on Thursday to provide a development of significant impact site plan approval for the school, which plans to open for up to 100 students – kindergarten through sixth grade – in August 2025.
Commissioner Darren Taylor, representing the city’s 1st Ward, was the lone dissenting vote, citing lingering concerns tied to traffic in the constricted area next to Morgantown High School. While it’s beyond the purview of the planning commission, Taylor also noted the property has no green space or recreation area for young students.
Thursday’s long-awaited approval came about two weeks after the school received a green light from the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board.
“We certainly believe that what we’re doing is adding value to Morgantown. It’s providing educational options,” Wisdom Academy President Javaid Syed said. “We want to be the exemplary school in the state of West Virginia. We want to show people how education should be … We’re committed to it. The commitment we’re making is a very serious commitment. I do not want to play with the education of a child.”
The building in question is the former central office of Monongalia County Schools. It was purchased by three individuals under the name AST Properties.
One of those individuals, Abdul Tarabishy, first submitted the site plan request to the city in October 2023.
And there it stayed as Tarabishy and his partners went back to the drawing board time and again to allay commission fears centered around pedestrian safety and pick up/ drop off procedures in an area already congested and chaotic at those specific times due to MHS.
Those concerns were echoed by a trio of Wagner Road residents, including Nancy Lynch, who said living conditions in the area are already significantly impacted by the existing traffic.
“I feel like this is asking for even more trouble than already exists,” she said. “We’re at the point where we want to move because of the congestion and noise and inconvenience … I have to be careful about when I come home, or I can’t get into my driveway or park in our permitted spots.”
The plan ultimately approved by the commission includes a number of commitments, including: No parents queuing on High Street and restricted access from High Street to the school’s parking area; the school cannot start before 9 a.m. or dismiss before 2:55 p.m. to avoid the height of MHS traffic; the school has purchased a bus and will encourage families to utilize that service; parents will queue for pick-up/drop-off areas along Prairie Avenue; trained crossing guards and, potentially, personnel from the Morgantown Police Department and/or off-duty police officers will be on-site to usher students and control traffic.
It also came with a powerful advocate in Dirar Ahmad, West Virginia Division of Highways assistant director of quality assurance and project management, who drove from Charleston to offer commentary, not as a representative of DOH, but as an advisor to the school effort.
Ahmad confirmed the traffic study conducted by engineering firm HRG indicated the school will not have any “severe or negative” impact on traffic. Further, he indicated WVDOH District 4 has committed to looking at what pedestrian safety improvements and traffic control devices would be appropriate at the location.
“I assure you I would not be associating myself or putting my credential as a professional engineer if I didn’t think that this project is noble,” he said. “This project will help the community and this project will not have any severe impact.”
As he has since the issue first appeared before the body, Commissioner Tim Stranko said the debate over school choice or the sincerity of the applicants wasn’t the issue before the body.
“The question in front of us is the impact of this proposed use in this neighborhood. Is this the right place?” he asked. “They’ve come up with a wonderful plan about how to minimize the impact, which suggests that there is a potential impact. We all see that … It’s a great plan, but once we pass this and say this development is appropriate for this location, we’re done. We don’t have police powers to come back and say, ‘Well, you made these five pledges.’”
To that end, Development Services Director Rickie Yeager said he would work with city legal counsel to put some review and accountability in place as a condition of commission approval.
Yeager said the city could require an annual access agreement to allow the queuing of vehicles on Prairie Avenue. If the school is not living up to its promises, Yeager said the revocation of the building’s occupancy permit could be among the potential penalties.
Commission President Peter DeMasters said he believes the applicants have made every effort to minimize impacts to traffic and the neighborhood and focus on student safety. He equated the existing MHS traffic situation to a failing intersection noting, “It’s already an F. It can’t be an F minus.”
“I’ve sat on this planning commission for probably 18 years or something like that. We see a lot of things come before us and a lot of what I hear is, ‘Gosh, this is a great project, but not in my neighborhood,’” DeMasters said. “Well, it’s got to be somewhere, otherwise we’re not doing anything.”
