MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virignia Academy believes their application for a charter school in Mon County been approved due to lack of action by the local board of education.
In a letter to the school board, president of the academy board, John Treu points to the law passed by the legislature that requires applications to be approved or denied by the “authorizer,” or board of education, within 90 days or it is deemed approved.
“We filed our application at the end of July, July 24,” Treu said,” Three months had already passed by the end of October, so we’ve already been statutorily approved.”
The West Virginia Academy is a non-profit entity that was established after the state law was passed. Once the management structure was inplace talks began with the Mon County Board of Education, according to Treu.
“We told them we were planning to submit an application back in January,” Treu said,” It’s more of a long term process that’s been going on, it’s not something that just suddenly came up.”
Superintendent of Mon County Schools, Dr. Eddie Campbell contends West Virginia State Board of Education policy sets the application deadline on August 31, or the 90-day period begins on August 31.
“That 90-day period ends at some point, it could end earlier that(90 days),” Dr. Campbell said,” But, that 90-day period ends on November 30 when the board has to take action.”
The state board of education policy for charter schools is in Article III, Series 3300. The specific information Campbell refers to is on page 17.
The Mon County Board of Education will hold a meeting on November 30 to address the application and will accept public comment at their regular meeting on November 10.
According to Treu, the local board of education was to arrange public meetings, but they were organized by Mon County Superintendent Dr. Eddie Campbell. Further, Treu says Campbell did properly not notify the public about the meeting, but did notify members of the American Federation of Teachers who held a rally outside the venue.
“The process is supposed to be conducted by the boards of education, because as a charter school we would report directly to the boards of education. The superintendent, in particular, has a conflict of interest in the matter, so he really shouldn’t be involved.”
Campbell says he is the lone agent and sole employee of the local board of education.
“This is the first time any county has had to do this,” Dr. Campbell said,” I know they have been very cautious and have paid a lot attention to the detals of how this is supposed to be processed.”
University High School was the site of the Charter School Forum on October 22. Members of the West Virginia American Federation of Teachers held a rally at venue just before the forum.
“Why weren’t the public included in the process, why haven’t the interviews been conducted in public meetings as they were supposed to be?” Treu asked,” Those are all great questions, but they’re not really questions for me because I wasn’t in control of that.”
The goal of the academy is to follow the approval process and begin taking student applications in the coming months.
“We think now that we’ve been approved at the preliminary level it will go to the state and the state will decide if we receive final approval,” Treu said,” If so, our school will be opening next fall and we look forward to that.”