MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The first week of secondary school classes is underway at the West Virginia Academy in Morgantown. Recent reports indicated the school has the highest charter school enrollment in the state of 458, so far.
According to academy president Jon Treu, they carefully selected a building on Chestnut Ridge Road that could be repurposed without a major facelift or a interior reconfiguration. The location also made it ideal for the primary service area of Monongalia-Preston Counties.
“In what used to be a West Virginia University research facility,” Treu said. “So, the positives to that are it has all the same safety standards required for that type of facility which meets the standards for public schools as well.”
Treu said the school provides before and after school programming and tailored education experiences for students. The STEM and Language Arts programs attempt to meet students where they are academically along with the West Virginia Ambassador program to promote character development and civility.
Treu said they have made views of parents a priority from the inception of the organization with the survey used to develop the mission.
“We have a sitting position on our governing board for a parent of students,” Treu said. “A parent on the parent organization for the school has a seat on the board.”
The charter school program is new, but the institutions will follow all rules set forth by the West Virginia Department of Education.
“All the data you get on public schools in terms of test scores and various information about students at a particular school- they’ll have that same information about our school because we report on the exact same system.”
Primary students will begin classes on August 8.
Treu will be a guest Friday on WAJR’s Talk of the Town with more the the first week of classes.