Janine Yass, co-founder and president of The Yass Prize, will be featured on WAJR's Talk of the Town tomorrow morning. For more than 25 years, the Yass family have dedicated their time, their intellect, and their resources to innovating in public education and supporting excellent schools that give parents meaningful choices. When the Covid crisis revealed and magnified the vast inequities that surround a majority of students in public education, they pivoted to a more impactful way of spending their resources to improve student's lives.
West Virginia Academy has been named a semi-finalist for a 2023 Yass Prize and will receive $200,000 in growth funding and the academy remains in the running for the $1 million prize. “The extraordinary breadth and depth of these competitors vying for the grand prize are carving pathways to success that defy convention,” said Jeanne Allen, director of the Yass Prize Foundation and CEO of the Center for Education Reform, at the Yass Summit.
According to the Balanced Scorecard, WVA achieved the highest test scores among all the charter schools in West Virginia last year. "Our programs work," stated Heidi Treu, Executive Director of West Virginia Academy. "With the first year under our belts, we are excited to see our students continue to flourish academically. We have students from all backgrounds, some have been left behind and others are ahead of the curve. We look forward to serving as many scholars as we can, helping them to reach their academic potential with our specialized programs." The Yass prize funding will help the academy serve the growing number of students interested in a public charter school option.
John Treu, Board Director of West Virginia Academy, will also be featured on Talk of the Town tomorrow to discuss the success WVA has experienced during this past year of operations.
Click on the link below to hear the interviews live tomorrow morning. #YassPrize, #WestVirginiaAcademy, #Talkofthetown