Masontown, West Virginia – West Virginia Academy is formally announcing the launch of its pilot program at the Preston County Youth Center that will include Pre-K to 2nd grade. The first day of classes at this campus will be on Thursday August 10th and families can register now by completing the standard West Virginia Academy application and selecting the grade level option that includes “WVA Preston Campus”. Families with children in older grades will receive bus transportation from the Preston Campus to our Suncrest campus beginning on August 10th so that families that have children attending at both campuses can drop off all of their students at one location. The school day at the Preston Campus will begin at 7:30am and run to 2:30pm and after-school programs will be available on-site until 5pm each school day, excluding early release days. West Virginia Academy is a publicly-funded charter school and so there is no tuition to attend and fees are commensurate with fees charged at non-charter public schools.
West Virginia Academy uses a unique curriculum that places each child at their own level of instruction in the core topics of reading, writing, and math. Depending on enrollment levels at the Preston Campus, students may be in a combined Pre-k and Kindergarten class or a combined 1st and 2nd grade class for their homeroom, but each student is still be placed at their individualized level of instruction in core topics for direct instruction sessions, so the homeroom class does not establish the level of instruction for each child. West Virginia Academy’s unique approach to education ensures children who are advanced as well as children who need remediation are able to get the individualized instruction to meet their educational needs.
Additional information about the Preston Campus is as follows:
Grade Levels Going Forward The academy hopes to add multiple grade levels in future years, but will add at least one grade level each year so that all students who enroll now will be able to continue to attend the academy in future years.
Academic Calendar In order to complete additional training for the personnel and staff at the new campus, the first term of the pilot program at the Preston Campus will run from August 10th to October 6th, which is slightly different from the first term dates for the Suncrest Campus, but the calendars will aligned for both Campuses the remainder of the academic year.
Internal Transfer Students Students who are already enrolled at the Suncrest/Morgantown campus that wish to transfer to the Preston Campus may do so by submitting a request to info@westvirginiaacademy.org that includes “Transfer to Preston Campus” in the subject line.
Shuttle to Suncrest Campus To accommodate families with children in older grade levels, West Virginia Academy will provide bus transportation from the Preston Campus to its Suncrest Campus that serves up to 10th grade. We anticipate the bus will depart the Preston Campus at 7am and arrive back at approximately 4pm.
Transportation to Preston Campus Because of limitations on funding and staffing during the pilot year, bus transportation to the Preston Campus will not be provided, but WVA is hopeful to be able to add transportation in the future including as early as the 2024-25 academic year.
Sports at the Preston Campus The Preston Campus is also the West Virginia Academy sports facility that will serve all WVA campuses and significant improvements are planned for a 20 acre campus around the existing facility of the PCYC that include a new school building, swimming pool venue, track and field complex, a park, as well as outdoor sports facilities for basketball, tennis/pickleball, volleyball, and soccer.
Mountaineers Go First West Virginia Academy is the first-ever public charter school in the state of West Virginia and this will be the first-ever charter school located in Preston County.