Two coal-burning power plants in northern West Virginia need upgrades to stay in operation, and local electricity customers will be asked to pay for them.
Mon Power is seeking approval from state regulators to upgrade wastewater treatment systems at the Fort Martin Power Station in Monongalia County and the Harrison Power Station in Harrison County.
The upgrades will bring the plants into compliance with Environmental Protection Agency rules.
If the West Virginia Public Service Commission approves the project, both plants can remain in operation beyond 2028.
According to the company’s filing, it plans to retire Fort Martin in 2035 and Harrison in 2040. The plants began operating in 1967 and 1972, respectively.
The plants produce about 3,000 megawatts of electricity and consume 7% of West Virginia’s annual coal production. Together, they employ 420 workers.
Starting in 2024, Mon Power customers will pay a monthly surcharge to cover the $142 million cost of the upgrades. It will add 51 cents to the average residential customer’s bill, according to the company’s filing.
During its Nov. 10 meeting, the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board approved the first three brick-and-mortar public charter schools in the state’s history.
The schools will be located in the Eastern Panhandle, the Morgantown area and in Nitro in Kanawha County.
Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy will be based in Charles Town and serve children from kindergarten to 10th grade in Jefferson and Berkeley counties. It will be overseen by an education service provider called ACCEL Schools based in Ohio.
Nitro Preparatory Academy will also be run by ACCEL Schools and will be based in Nitro. It will serve children from kindergarten to 8th grade in Kanawha and Putnam counties.
“We congratulate the school boards of Eastern Panhandle Prep and Nitro Prep on the approval of their applications today,” said Chad Carr, executive vice president of ACCEL Schools. “We look forward to working with them and with both communities to begin serving students in fall 2022.”
Both schools expect a max enrollment of about 600 students.
In north central West Virginia, West Virginia Academy will be based in Morgantown and serve children in Monongalia and Preston counties. The school is expected to enroll a little more than 1,300 students and offer kindergarten through 12th grade.
“We are very excited about our approval and we are pressing forward to be ready for opening day this next fall,” said West Virginia Academy President John Treu. “Our approval along with two other schools is a major victory for West Virginia students and families who want a meaningful choice in public education … We will also raise the bar for the local school districts and improve education systems.”
In contrast, representatives from the state’s two largest teacher unions said they were not pleased with the news.
West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee said he’s “disappointed” and feels the move by the state’s charter school board goes against a decision made last year by two county school boards that denied the creation of a charter school.
“When [the West Virginia Legislature] couldn’t get the [Monongalia and Preston county school boards] to authorize [West Virginia Academy], the legislature went back and created a board that essentially is made up of charter advocates, so I’m not surprised at all that they would authorize three schools,” said Lee. “What worries me is the money they will take away from our [traditional] public schools.”
American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia President Fred Albert argued the schools are not being set up in areas of critical need in West Virginia.
“The three new charter schools will be opened in areas of the state with exceptional existing public schools and a higher socioeconomic population compared to most communities in West Virginia,” said Albert. “If charter schools are really designed to improve education, why are they being opened in affluent, well-performing school districts instead of in poverty-stricken, disadvantaged communities?”
Chairman of the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board Adam Kissel said the new schools will provide more options for West Virginians.
“This is a great day for West Virginia’s children and families,” Kissel said. “Each school is unique, and each child is unique. When families have more education choices, more kids will be in schools that fit their needs the best.”
The West Virginia Professional Charter School Board is expected to meet again on Nov. 17 at 4 p.m. to discuss three proposed statewide virtual charter schools.
“All three [virtual school] applications are excellent,” said Kissel. “So the board will need to distinguish the relative demonstrated merit using objective criteria within the board’s discretion.”
Kissel said during Wednesday’s board meeting that they are still seeking an executive director.
West Virginia passed its first charter school legislation in 2019. In 2021, the law was revised by the legislature to allow up to 10 brick-and-mortar public charter schools to be approved within a three-year period. The law also permits virtual public charter schools, and it created the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board.
In 2018 and 2019, West Virginia public school teachers went on a statewide strike to demand better pay, health benefits and to speak out against the creation of charter schools in West Virginia.
A lawsuit remains pending in Kanawha County Circuit Court claiming the state’s charter law is unconstitutional, because it allows for charters to open without approval from local voters.
On Monday, two county school boards struck down the state’s first application to establish a public charter school. The proposed program, dubbed West Virginia Academy, would have been located in Morgantown and served Mongonalia and Preston counties, focusing on academic achievement across K-12 classrooms, including an International Baccalaureate curriculum.
School boards in Monongalia and Preston counties, however, unanimously rejected the charter proposal, saying the application did not meet 7 out of the 10 evaluation criteria required in the proposal process.
Board members pointed to a lack of demand and support from local families based on a social media survey West Virginia Academy conducted that found less than 1 percent of families in the two counties supported establishing a charter school. They also said the goal and vision for the proposed charter is a mission already being met by traditional public schools in the area. Board members said West Virginia Academy provided an unclear outline of operations, governance, a financial model, and how specifically curriculum would be taught, among other concerns. They pointed to a lack of wraparound services identified for students and no clear explanation of what digital devices, such as iPads or Chromebooks, would be available to students.
Overall, board members turned the proposal down due to a lack of clear, detailed strategies and timelines of how the school would be run and how funding would be distributed.
“There were just a lot of holes for me in this application as to how all those needs were going to be met,” said Monongalia County Board President Nancy Walker. “Over the years, as board members, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about the different learning methods needed to connect with different students, and this seems to rely basically on one delivery model, and I was very concerned about that.”
In an email to West Virginia Public Broadcasting, West Virginia Academy President John Treu expressed disappointment in the decision by the two boards and said his proposal was “based on applications from schools that went on to become some of the top public schools in the country.”
He also claims that, under state law, the application has already been deemed approved because of a period of inaction by the combined boards of Monongalia and Preston counties. In an email, however, from the West Virginia Department of Education, the WVDE told West Virginia Public Broadcasting that the two boards had until Nov. 30 to make a decision on the charter school proposal, which they met.
Treu said he plans to contact the WVDE about his concerns over the application process. He said he thinks “the decision for whether a charter school opens should be up to the parents in [that] community as opposed to a panel of district-level bureaucrats.”
A spokesperson from the state department of education said decisions by the county boards are “final.”
How Did We Get Here?
After years of heated debate, in 2019, Gov. Jim Justice signed the state’s first public charter school law, following in the footsteps of 44 other states nationwide and the District of Columbia, according to the National Charter School Resource Center.
West Virginia’s law works this way: up to three public charter schools can be established between now and 2023 with an opportunity for more after that.
Proposals first start at the county board of education level, which act as that proposed charter school’s authorizer, and then the proposal moves on to the West Virginia Department of Education for consideration.
To be approved, charters must meet requirements laid out by the West Virginia Board of Education Policy 3300 and follow the West Virginia Standard Public Charter School Application process.
What Is West Virginia Academy?
John Treu moved to Morgantown with his family about five years ago. He and his wife Heidi were originally from Utah and Nevada respectively, but they moved around — New York, Washington D.C., Maryland and now West Virginia. Both are educators.
Heidi taught middle school science and health in traditional public schools and one charter school. She now homeschools their six children. John teaches accounting at West Virginia University.
“We’ve experienced a lot of different school systems,” John Treu said. “And [we’ve] seen some of the strengths and weaknesses of those individual systems.”
Listen to the original story, which aired ahead of the vote on Nov. 30, 2020.
Listen to the original story, which aired ahead of the vote on Nov. 30, 2020.
The Treus hoped to open the state’s first public charter school in Morgantown, called West Virginia Academy. Most charter schools, according to the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools, are nonprofits. Treu’s school would be the same. Under the West Virginia law, it would have a governing board made up of local parents and residents with expertise in primary, secondary, and higher education as well as finance, law and accounting.
All charter schools are public schools that aim to offer teachers flexibility in how curriculum is delivered. Oftentimes charters emphasize certain fields like engineering or performing arts.
Treu said he wanted to establish a charter school in West Virginia for two reasons: he thinks the current public model in the state gives too much money to administrators as opposed to student resources and teachers, and he wants to improve student achievement.
“We have extremely high graduation rates, but really low student outcomes,” he said. “Which suggests that not very much is being expected of our students. We believe that students will respond to greater rigor and higher expectations.”
According to the U.S. Department of Education, West Virginia’s graduation rate was at least 90 percent or higher in 2018 — above the national average, which was 85 percent. According to federal data from 2019, West Virginia’s 8th graders ranked below average on math and reading scores. The last available reading and math score data from the Nation’s Report Card for 12th graders in West Virginia was available in 2013. Both scores from that year were also below the national average.
The state’s overall ACT test scores for the class of 2020, however, were just above the national average but fell short in the mathematics score.
In a release from the West Virginia Department of Education last year, the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission reported 52.6 percent of West Virginia students enrolled in in-state institutions of higher education in fall 2018. That same year, 41 percent of students continued their education to achieve advanced credentials or certifications, joined the workforce or enrolled in the military upon graduation.
Treu is hoping West Virginia Academy can tackle some of the issues seen in West Virginia’s K-12 education system. His school would be open to any student who applied, and after it reaches capacity, future applications would be placed into a lottery system. In the first year, the school would offer grades kindergarten through 8th grade with the goal of expanding to K-12 over a five-year period and max capacity of 1,420 students.
“That’s really the allure to it,” he said. “We have the flexibility to maximize student outcomes and pursue optimizing student outcomes in a way that we believe is appropriate, and that the data suggests is superior to the way it’s being done currently in public schools.”
The primary school, Treu said, would offer a curriculum called Core Knowledge. His goal is to focus on bolstering foundational knowledge in core subjects, including language arts, history and geography, and science.
According to the creators of the program, “the Core Knowledge approach puts knowledge at the heart of schooling and details to teachers a clear grade-by-grade sequence of what students need to know in each grade.”
For the middle school years, West Virginia Academy would offer the International Baccalaureate Middle Years program, called IB. For the high school years, the school would follow the IB Diploma program, which is academically rigorous and internationally recognized by higher education institutions worldwide.
The school would be subject to the same regulations as traditional public schools in West Virginia specifically as it relates to safety and needs for students with disabilities, Treu said. But otherwise, administrative costs, salaries and how they deliver content is up to the governing board to decide.
If student achievement doesn’t show improvement, charter schools, unlike traditional public schools that are rarely closed over low achievement, are given a warning to fix it or face closure.
Since West Virginia Academy would be designated as a public charter school, it would be funded by public, or state, dollars.
But it’s that issue that’s drawn the most concern from those in opposition.
Charters Versus Traditional Public Schools
In October, Treu held a public forum in Morgantown on his proposed charter school, and he was met with a rally against it. Morgantown High School art teacher Sam Brunett was there.
“When the governor called that special session [to consider charter school legislation] after two strikes against charter schools, I think we all knew in Monongalia County, this would be one of the first places they attempted a charter school, and lo and behold, here we are tonight,” Brunett said from behind a podium outside University High School.
Brunett is also the president of the American Federation of Teachers chapter in Monongalia County.
Like many teacher union supporters around the nation, Brunett is staunchly opposed to charter schools and argues they would take money away from traditional public schools instead of focusing more resources on improving the state’s current education system, which he describes as deprived and struggling.
“[This is] funneling away money from an already deprived education system and giving it to basically a private institution,” he said. “We’re adamantly against that type of procedure. We’re looking at upwards of $11 million to be siphoned from Monongalia County Schools after this [charter] school is established all the way. What happens to our existing schools when those types of things happen? We see programs like art, band, our physical education, sports, all those things are just the first thing to go.”
Brunett is not alone in his concerns. Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association filed an “intent to sue” after the legislation to allow charters was signed by the governor.
Lee said the state constitution demands that every child, no matter their background, be given the right to a free, public education. He’s concerned charters would “cherry pick” students.
“If you allow me to handpick the students that I want to teach in my school, knowing that I don’t have to take any of the special needs kids, any discipline problems and kids without good parental support, I’m going to show much bigger gains than a public school where we take and educate everyone,” Lee said. “We believe that our Constitution is clear that you provide a free, thorough, efficient public education for every child, not just a select few.”
West Virginia Academy, however, according to John Treu, would admit anyone. But Lee said that even still, he doesn’t approve of charters because as he sees it, designating them as “public” is just a way to make sure they get public dollars, taking away from traditional public schools that he thinks need more support.
This concern is not unfounded.
Would Charter Schools Work In West Virginia?
Mark Berends directs the Center for Research on Educational Opportunity at the University of Notre Dame and has done extensive research into charter schools. He said that yes, public charters would in effect take away, or reroute, funding from traditional public schools, but he said if the feeling among the public is to establish a charter, then it should be up to the public.
“I think it is public money,” Berends said. “If there’s schooling options put in place that are really effective, and those happen to be charter schools, then parents should have the right to be able to choose those schools for their children.”
It’s unclear, though, if a charter school would be effective in West Virginia. Berends said there hasn’t been enough research to determine if charters are effective in rural areas — and West Virginia is a mostly rural state.
Berends said there is research though that shows virtual charter schools, which are seeing a recent boom due to the coronavirus pandemic, do poorly in rural areas.
“Looking at achievement results, virtual charter schools in Indiana, after switching from a public school into a virtual charter school, loses about 16 percentile points in mathematics and also significant losses in reading,” he said.
Most research finds that charter schools improve student learning greatest in elementary and middle school, but he said little research supports positive impacts in high school.
Berends also said there’s research to support that charter schools don’t serve special education students well.
Because West Virginia’s charter school law limits the number of public charter schools, Berends said the state is in a unique position to perfect a model and get it right, if such schools are something state residents support.
“We have learned a lot about charter schools over the last three decades, and Americans love choices. They love choices at the grocery store, and they like choices for the schools that their children attend,” he said. “I don’t really see [charters] going away, despite opposition, but I think it would behoove the people that are going to be running these charter schools to get it right.”
As West Virginia and the entire nation continues to see sharp increases in the spread of the coronavirus, officials at West Virginia University have announced undergraduate classes will move online for the remainder of the fall semester.
While university officials had already planned on holding the last week of classes and finals online after Thanksgiving, the expedited move to online learning comes as the state continues to break records in the number of newly recorded cases of the virus.
In a Tuesday news release, university officials said the change in learning format will begin Nov. 23 and 24 and apply to all of WVU’s campuses, including Morgantown, Keyser and Beckley.
Officials at WVU said health sciences programs will be excluded from the switch to online coursework. Faculty who teach graduate and professional-level courses may determine whether to teach classes in person on Monday and Tuesday. Residence halls and dining facilities will operate on a normal schedule through the holiday break.
“Now more than ever, we ask our students, faculty and staff to stay home and away from those outside of your immediate bubble as much as possible,” said Dr. Carmen Burrell, medical director of WVU Medicine Student Health and Urgent Care. “If you have to be out or travel, follow the safety guidance that has been put in place to protect you and others, especially our more vulnerable residents.”
The rising number of coronavirus cases in West Virginia has shattered records in recent weeks. It took the state 42 days to record 1,000 cases once the first case was announced. Now, 1,000 new cases are reported roughly every 36 hours.
In the past week, 202 cases of the virus have been identified in Monongalia County, which is home to WVU’s Morgantown campus. An additional 64 cases have been listed as probable.
As of Tuesday, 598 West Virginians have died from the virus and more than 10,000 cases are considered active. In total, the state has recorded more than 35,000 cases.
With hospitalizations at a high mark and other key metrics — including ICU usage and the number of patients on ventilators — also breaking new records, Gov. Jim Justice announced Monday a string of executive orders, including a stricter mandate on wearing a mask while indoors.
In mid-September, Justice announced that all students at WVU diagnosed with the virus would be counted as a single case for data analysis purposes. Bars in Morgantown had been shuttered for months because of outbreaks of the virus, but were allowed to reopen in mid-October at half capacity.
A federal judge has ruled in favor of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice in a lawsuit over his decision to close bars in student-heavy Monongalia due the coronavirus pandemic.
The owners of 12 establishments sued the governor last month for ordering them to close after pictures were posted online of college students in Morgantown packing bars without masks.
U.S. District Judge John Bailey issued an order Tuesday denying a motion for injunctive relief on behalf of the businesses, news outlets reported.
Bailey said the “right to do business” has not been recognized as constitutionally protected and the claims “ignore the grave nature of why the Governor issued a state of emergency.”
The judge noted that the businesses are currently allowed to operate since the order was lifted on Oct. 13, but said even if they weren’t, it wouldn’t constitute deprivation that would entitle them to due process protections.
“There is no public interest in attending bars when we are dealing with a pandemic, especially in counties experiencing surges of new COVID-19 cases,” Bailey said. “Doing so will only increase the spread of COVID-19, endangering not only the bar attendees but also their families and friends and the health care institutions in Morgantown which have to take care of the virus’ victims.”
Amid an uptick in cases in Monongalia County, West Virginia University has announced they are moving undergraduate classes online for the next few weeks. The decision by the state’s flagship university follows moves by other higher education institutions to move classes online as coronavirus cases sharply increase in the first weeks of a new semester nationwide.
According to an email from the university, all undergraduate courses in Morgantown will go online beginning Wednesday, Sept. 9, with the exception of those Health Sciences courses with students already engaged in clinical rotation. Classes will be held online through Friday, Sept. 25. Graduate and professional courses will continue to be offered in person, the announcement said.
University officials say the change in course delivery is in direct response to a recent increase in positive cases in students on the Morgantown campus, as well as concern for other potential spread following several reports of parties held this holiday weekend where groups should have been in quarantine.
WVU placed 29 students on immediate interim suspension Sunday, Sept. 6 amid ongoing investigations into student conduct. Other sanctions against students had previously been brought forth for throwing large parties and otherwise not following public health guidelines.
“This pause in face-to-face undergraduate instruction will give us time to monitor the steadily climbing cases of COVID-19,” Dr. Jeffrey Coben, associate vice president of health affairs and dean of the School of Public Health, said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “There is increasing evidence that crowded indoor gatherings, such as those that occurred over the weekend, can serve as super-spreader events.”
As colleges and universities reopened for in-person classes around the nation, many have struggled to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
In mid-August, and just days into its semester, the University of North Carolina moved its classes online after an outbreak. Just eight days after classes started, the University of Notre Dame saw an explosion in cases. This weekend, the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced it was directing nine fraternities and sororities on its campus to quarantine after many in those groups tested positive.
Many around Morgantown feared the community would look like other university towns struggling with the virus once WVU returned for the fall semester. Such fears seem to be realized, according to data from state health officials.
Monongalia County, where WVU’s main campus sits in Morgantown, is currently the state’s hardest hit county. According to data from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, the number of active cases in the area has more than doubled in less than a week. The county was seeing 149 active cases of the virus as of Monday, August 31. By Sunday, Sept. 6 that number had grown to 348.
“If any students traveled home for the holiday weekend and have their materials to learn remotely, we ask those students to remain where they are right now,” Dean of Students Corey Farris said. “However, we are strongly advising students who did not travel over the weekend to remain in Morgantown during this time. We have every intention of bringing our students back to campus to resume in-person classes, but that all depends on how our campus community responds in the coming days.”
Gov. Jim Justice has kept a close eye on Monongalia County in recent weeks. The governor initially shut down bars in mid-July before extending that order through August 31. Bars were allowed to reopen for only two days before Justice — citing long lines of young people not socially distancing or wearing masks waiting to get into a downtown bar — indefinitely closed bars in the county.
With Monongalia County being deemed “red” by state health and education officials, K-12 classes are set to go online beginning Tuesday. Data from state health officials show the county was reporting a 14-day rolling average of 33.41 daily cases.