CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Professional Charter School Board received updates and good news regarding the state’s small, but growing public charter school programs.

The Professional Charter School Board met Thursday morning for a virtual meeting over Zoom. Executive Director James Paul provided board members with updates prior to the start of the second school year for West Virginia’s public charter school pilot program.

Paul said he has met with representatives of Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy in Kearneysville and Virtual Preparatory Academy of West Virginia. Both schools are managed by education service provider Accel. Despite being public charter schools, employees at both schools are considered employees of Accel and not eligible for health insurance through the Public Employees Insurance Agency and retirement benefits through the Teachers Retirement System, though employees at those schools do have health insurance and a 401K through Accel.

Both schools are considering a change to their contracts with Accel to make the governing boards themselves the employer to make teachers and staff at those schools eligible for state funds for PEIA and TRS. Paul said this could happen in the next six months, but it would require the PCSB to approve an amendment to the contracts with the schools.

“What we may see is the governing boards’ new contracts still lets the ESP do the management functions for the teachers,” said Adam Kissel, chairman of the PCSB.

The West Virginia Academy in Morgantown has received a donation of land in Preston County to allow the school to create a second campus.

“As of now, the school is deciding whether to open that second campus this fall or in 2024,” Paul said. “It’s very exciting to see the community support for the school, to see so much support for the school.”

The West Virginia Virtual Academy signed a memorandum of understanding with Pierpont Community and Technical College in Fairmont to give virtual high school students dual credit opportunities towards earning an associate’s degree at the same time they graduate high school.

“Those are both really great developments for each institution,” Kissel said.

“This news about both is really amazing,” board member Karen Bailey-Chapman said. “It’s fantastic to create that kind of partnership.”

West Virginia Academy and the M.E.C.C.A. Business Learning Institute, opening in the fall in Berkeley County, also are seeking developer grants through the U.S. Department of Education’s Charter School Program. The grants are available to schools that are expanding and for schools that are authorized but not yet open.

Paul said academic growth scores will be available for the current public charter schools this year for students who transferred from a public school to a charter school. Board member Dewayne Duncan said this data will be helpful.

The board also voted to make technical changes to a contract with the WIN Academy, a public charter school proposed by BridgeValley Community and Technical College based in South Charleston.

The WIN Academy will serve high school seniors and juniors to prepare them for the first year of an associate degree registered nursing program during their senior year.