CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The board overseeing the Virtual Preparatory Academy of West Virginia is adding a new member and already preparing for the 2024-2025 school year.
Board members appointed McDowell County parent David Green during their Tuesday morning meeting and said more parents could be inducted in the future.
Green has three children enrolled at VPA who are second, sixth and eighth grades. He said he was skeptical of sending his kids to a virtual charter school at first.
“We were really concerned about the transition between the public school and being at home all day and how that was actually going to work, but they’ve taken to it extremely well being able to interact with their classmates and teachers on this Zoom type program,” Green said.
Educational Service Provider Shannon McElwain told the board there are currently 639 students enrolled and 674 students verified.
“That 674 represents students who are starting next week, two weeks from now and even in January. We have some high school students who will be joining us in the second semester. That 639 is today active, enrolled, verified, going to class,” she explained.
Green said the level of education is “outstanding” and is really challenging students to work hard.
“From the educational standpoint, my wife and I were extremely pleased. The children were working from day one. When they get into public schools, it usually takes a week to get up and going,” he said.
McElwain said they still have some improvements to make. She said they’re working to make orientation materials easier to find for next school year and plan to host monthly meetings for parents. There will also be additional classes for students who need more support.
“We’re working to ensure instructions is exactly where it needs to be,” she said.
VPA is also looking at reenrollment for next year, McElwain said.
“We send a text out to a family, they click the link, they go with it and that’s how we collect who is returning and of course that helps us determine staffing and what does the 2024-2025 school year even look like,” she said.