By Ryan Quinn, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Seven applicants are asking West Virginia’s new state-level charter school board to allow them to open, according to the board’s chairman.
Chairman Adam Kissel wrote in an email that three statewide online schools serving grades K-12 and four brick-and-mortar ones serving a narrower range submitted their applications by the Aug. 31 deadline.
The charter board has 90 days from when the applications were filed to rule on them. If the board doesn’t act at all on the applications within that time, the schools will automatically be approved to open as soon as next school year.
Two of the online charters would be run day-to-day by publicly traded companies that are major online education providers in other states: Stride Inc., formerly called K12 Inc., and education juggernaut Pearson, through its Connections Academy subsidiary…