By Ryan Quinn, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The boards of education for Monongalia and Preston counties unanimously on Monday denied West Virginia Academy’s application to become the state’s first charter school.
But the school may still fight on toward opening — through the court system.
The school had planned to open somewhere in the “greater Morgantown area,” according to John Treu, president and board member of West Virginia Academy.
These decisions came on the final date that the West Virginia Board of Education gave county school boards the ability to approve or deny organizations’ applications to open charter schools. If county boards missed that decision deadline, the charter schools would have been allowed to open by default.
But state law says county boards have “no later than 90 days following the filing of the charter application” to approve or deny an application or face the approval by default. Because West Virginia Academy’s application was submitted July 24, that 90-day deadline already has expired, and the charter school has thus argued that it already has been approved to open. Early this month, it threatened to sue over that issue and others…
