By Ryan Quinn, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Department of Education is providing $200,000 in start-up money to the still unstaffed state charter school approval board. Much of the money may go toward hiring an executive director.
Department spokeswoman Christy Day wrote in an email that the $200,000 is meant to “address an inadvertent oversight to fund the board during the last legislative session.”
“These funds will be made available until the West Virginia Legislature convenes, appropriates funding for the charter school board, and reallocates the funds back to the WVDE [West Virginia Department of Education] account,” Day wrote.
The decision on whether to return the money is up to lawmakers.
The money transfer from the department, which oversees existing public schools, to the board, which will oversee new schools getting per-pupil money that otherwise may have gone to public schools, comes as the board just started meeting last month…