No deficiencies
Early this week, the Professional Charter School Board in West Virginia continued its review of the six applications to become the first charters to open in the Mountain State: three brick-and-mortar and three virtual schools. While there were questions raised regarding Ohio-based Accel Schools, CMO for three of the six proposed schools, the board ultimately made a finding of “no deficiencies” in any of the applications before them.
At last!
On November 10, the Professional Charter School Board voted to approve three of those six applications—all of the brick-and-mortar schools before them—paving the way for charters to at last open up in West Virginia. Two of the schools, Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy in Charles Town and Nitro Preparatory Academy in Nitro, will be run by Accel Schools. The third, West Virginia Academy in Morgantown, is a mom-and-pop operation whose original application rejection by two county boards of education led to the new application process currently in place. Final votes on the virtual schools are still to come.
Toledo charter school on the grow
Last week, Toledo School for the Arts announced a nearly $7 million effort to upgrade the facilities at its downtown campus and to purchase and renovate another nearby building to expand. Kudos!
New Cincinnati charter breaks ground
A ground-breaking ceremony was held this week on the former campus of Cincinnati Christian University. The site will become the new home of IDEA Price Hill, the first Ohio location for IDEA Public Schools, a charter school operator from Texas. The new school—serving kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and seventh grade in its first year—is scheduled to open next August.
Still time to apply for STEM grants
Reminder: The application window is still open for the Ohio STEM Learning Network’s grant opportunity for K-12 classrooms across the state. For more information on the drive to fund creation of new, sustainable STEM education programming, click here. The application deadline is December 2, 2021.
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