Click here to read more about the Preston Board of Education’s response
The application for what would have been the first charter school in the state was given a failing grade Monday by the Monongalia County Board of Education.
BOE members voted unanimously to deny the application put forth by the West Virginia Academy, saying it failed to meet seven of 10 state-established benchmarks — while only receiving partial passing marks on two others.
The academy, according to those members and other district officials, failed to meet standards in its mission, operation plan, enrollment approach and general education program.
Its financial and facilities plans were also deemed inadequate, as were its regulations on governance and compliance.
A plan for what would happen should the academy close was the only measure to pass muster with the county.
The academy wanted to set up operation in Morgantown, while recruiting students from across Mon and portions of neighboring Preston and Marion counties.
Mon Schools Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. said there were too many gaps in the 371-page application.
“Overall, it just didn’t meet the standard set by the legislation,” he said.
Those deemed deficiencies included a failure to provide full learning resources for special needs students, said Donna Talerico, Mon’s deputy schools superintendent.
Graduation requirements also were not clearly stated, she said.
If anything was incorrect, John Treu said, it was Campbell and the board’s approach to the application.
Treu, the WVU accounting professor and dean who chairs the board of directors for the academy, said the deficiencies called out by the county were “vague and largely subjective.”
Mon’s school district, he said, had some inadequacies of its own concerning the review process.
BOE members failed to meet with academy’s directors, Treu said, which is part of the state statute for the charter school establishment process.
The school board, he said, “Delegated almost the entirety of the review process to the superintendent and district administrators who have the most to lose if our charter application were approved — which is an obvious conflict of interest.”
BOE President Nancy Walker said the motivation of Mon’s BOE is to provide the best education possible for county students.
Across the nation, charter schools either accomplish that — or they don’t.
“While we do not believe any charter application or charter school is perfect, our school and application were specifically designed using best practices from some of the most successful public charter schools in the entire country,” Treu said.
“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.”
Under the charter school statute in West Virginia, any school wanting to open its doors must have the approval of the local school board.
“The bottom line is that we’re still responsible for this school. And there were just a lot of holes in the application,” Walker said.
