By Jeff Jenkins, WV MetroNews
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — State School Superintendent Dr. Steve Paine decided to pull the plug on plans to release a draft of the proposed policy for public charter schools at Wednesday’s state Board of Education meeting in Clarksburg.
“I put a halt on the policy because I’m not comfortable with it coming forward yet,” Paine told board members. “We’ve done a lot of work. They’ve done a tremendous amount of work and good quality work but I want to have some personal discussions.”
The new state law gives the board until November to put the plan out for public comment. Paine said he wants to take advantage of the next month.
“I want to make sure they’ve we’ve dotted all of the i’s and crossed the t’s to the best of our ability and worked with everyone. This is a hard one because we have stakeholders on both sides of the issue,” Paine said.
The avenue to create public charter schools is part of the legislature’s education reform bill that was signed into law back in June. The law allows for three charter schools initially then three more in 2023, then three more every three years.