MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Morgantown-based Wisdom Academy has been awarded a grant from the state School Building Authority of $1.1 million, one of the first five grant awards to public charter schools since their inception.
Other grant recipients were the Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy, the Clarksburg Classical Academy, the West Virginia Academy, and the Mary Phelan Leadership Academy.
The Wisdom Academy opened last August. Since then, enrollment has doubled from 40 to 80, and the school will add the 8th grade next year. The school follows state standards and measures progress with the personalized Individual Performance Plan for Success (IPPS). The system makes room for individualized attention when needed and continuously tracks progress with frequent parental interactions.
Dr. Javaid Syed, chair of Wisdom Academy Board of Directors said the school has been featured nationally in USA Today and The International Business Times since opening.
“They talked to us because they saw we are trying to do things differently,” Syed said on WAJR’s “Talk of the Town.” “We are paying more attention to the child; we are paying attention to the parents and getting them involved in what we’re doing.”
Principal Debra Harrison said they plan to establish a middle school complex with the purchase of the building and land adjacent to the current building on South High Street. In the fall of 2026, the school will have pre-k through grade 8 in their second year of operation.
“We plan to purchase a building that will house our middle school complex and that would be grades 6 through 8, and also give us a better gymnasium and allow us to create a playground for our students,” Harrison said.
Harrison said they use state standards for all grade levels, but the charter environment and the IPPS let the teachers meet the needs of the students. The lessons are always connected with an actual aspect of the community so students have opportunities to understand academic concepts in a real scenario.
“Our teachers have leeway in how they present that material and that information, and one of the big things we want them to do is connect with community,” Harrison said. “So, they’ll have an activity or lesson in the classroom that they will follow up with in the field.”
Part of the construction plan includes adding STEM and STEAM labs that in the past have only been accessible off-site. Harrison said work on the expansion will begin as soon as possible.
“We would take out students to WVU to work with WVU folks to see the connection between what we were teaching in computer science and how that would lead to a real-world position,” Harrison said. “What we’re trying to do is make education relevant.”
The SBA awarded the school $1.1 million for the project that is estimated to cost $1.4 million just weeks before the scheduled start of classes. Now, the board and staff are doing everything they can to have the project for a contractor as soon as possible.
“If everything falls into place and everything plays out that we’re hoping to put into place we would like to start the school year with that new middle school complex for our students,” Harrison said.