CHARLESTON — Members of the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board may have an answer for parents upset about school closures and consolidations in their counties: apply to convert those schools to public charter schools.

James Paul, executive director of the Professional Charter School Board (PCSB), told board members during a virtual meeting Wednesday that parents from three counties, including individuals in Randolph and Wetzel counties, have reached out to him over the last several weeks about how to save schools slated for closure and consolidation.

The Randolph County Board of Education proposed closing Harman School and Pickens School and will send those students to other schools within the county. The Wetzel County Board of Education proposed closing Paden City High School and Hundred High School, consolidating those schools with Valley High School and Magnolia High School.

“Individuals from Randolph County, from Wetzel County, and at least one other county have contacted me over the last month or six weeks to learn about the possibility of traditional public schools converting into public charter schools,” Paul said. “This is a possibility that is contemplated in the charter school law to have conversion charter schools.”

House Bill 206, passed by the Legislature in 2019 and updated in 2021, created the current public charter school pilot project. The pilot program allows for the approval of 10 public charter schools every three years and a limit of two statewide virtual charter schools. State Code allows for the PCSB to authorize new charter schools, though counties can also authorize charter schools or create county-level virtual charter schools.

The public charter school law does allow an applicant to apply to convert an existing traditional public school to a public charter school. Traditional public schools that convert to public charter schools are required to guarantee enrollment for students who previously attended the school before conversion to a charter school, as well as maintain policies to give enrollment preference to students within that school’s attendance area.

State Code also allows public charter schools to request usage of existing school buildings from county boards of education for lease at current market values.

According to the latest official enrollment numbers finalized in October by the state Department of Education, there were 241,024 students enrolled this year in the public school system, which was down more than 4,000 students from 245,047 students the previous year. There are now 629 public schools – down by eight.

State Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt told state Board of Education members last week that there could be as many as 26 closures of existing public schools this year due to declining enrollment and decreases in the state school aid formula funding as a result.

Paul told the PCSB Wednesday that conversations with parents were just preliminary. Those interested in converting existing public schools into public charter schools would need to form governing boards and either apply to their county or to the PCSB for authorization. They would also need to develop plans for the existing school facility and how it would be financially viable.

“I would say nothing is imminent at this stage, but…residents in West Virginia are reaching out to me and are learning about what the process would look like for a school to convert into charter status,” Paul said. “These are generally areas where public schools are being consolidated or at risk of being consolidated, and people in these communities are looking for ways to reconstitute existing public schools into charters rather than seeing them be closed.”

To date, only the PCSB has authorized public charter schools in the state. There are four physical public charter schools operating in Morgantown, Kearneysville, South Charleston, and Clarksburg. There are also two statewide virtual public charter schools. Two additional physical public charter schools – M.E.C.C.A. Business Learning Institute in Inwood and the Wisdom Academy in Morgantown – will start in the fall of 2025.

The deadline for applying to start new public charter schools is Aug. 31 each year. PCSB Chairman Adam Kissell said that any changes to that deadline to consider an application for a conversion public charter school to approve a new school for the next school year would have to be made by the Legislature during the upcoming 2025 session.

“I think there’s a good argument for that, which is that a conversion charter school already has the building, it already has the teachers, it already has a lot of the other things in place,” Kissell said. “I think if there is a charter school option that’s for an existing school that converts, the Legislature would have good reasons to change the law if they wanted to.”

“I like the idea of it,” said board member Dewayne Duncan. “I think it could be very successful. I think it’s a real option for communities where they want to keep their local school, and I see value in that.”

“I hope that it comes to fruition, because I just think it’s just…out-of-the-box thinking, which is what this whole program was intended to be – to reimagine how we educate and how we do school administration even,” said board member Karen Bailey-Chapman.