The House subcommittee on Educational Choice engaged in discussion about charter schools in the state with local agencies.
The subcommittee spoke with Casey Sacks, president of BridgeValley Community Technical College, about their current WIN Academy program.
The WIN Academy program accepts high school juniors and seniors and places them into their accelerated degree program for nursing or advanced manufacturing. The academy is free for students.
In the 2025-2026 school year, students earned more than 1200 college credits. This has resulted in $270,000 in tuition savings.
This program fulfills West Virginia graduation requirements, on top of gathering college credits for students. West Virginia students who are at least sixteen years old are eligible for the academy through West Virginia’s open enrollment laws.
After Sacks’ presentation, Tim Conzett, assistant superintendent for the Office of Data Management and Information Systems at the West Virginia Department of Education, provided updates regarding the school choice parent portal.
The school choice parent portal, once it is available to the public, will streamline processes for homeschool students. These processes include filling out notices of intent, containing assessment results, and meeting with teachers for portfolio analysis.
The organization is looking forward to making this portal available as soon as possible for the public.
Lastly, Tom Franta, the founding executive director for the Mountaineer Charter School Alliance, provided information about the newly formed alliance and the goals moving forward.
The Mountaineer Charter School Alliance plans to grow and create a unified charter school system, focusing on maintaining regulatory flexibility, strong student outcome-based activity, and unifying force to bring charter schools together. The organization also plans to build community trust and transparency.
