CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A survey shows that most families with students enrolled in the Virtual Prep Academy of West Virginia are happy with their children’s experience.
Head of School Dr. Megan Nason revealed those results during the school’s board meeting on Wednesday, along with updates to enrollment and ongoing improvements to the program. She said that communicating with families is a priority.
“We have a new system where every single month, I send out a communication to every family who provides feedback, thanking them for taking the time to do that,” she said.
The October survey received 149 responses, 75% of which responded that they were happy with the experience, 19% that were mostly happy, and 4% that were not happy. Nason noted that two of the families that responded they were not happy have disenrolled from the school.
Responses indicated that many families felt their students are thriving with the academy, and Nason cited individual answers praising the educational value of the program. She did report some areas of need that were brought up as well.
“Areas that really we saw the most need were families still struggling to figure out some of those virtual systems, like how to check credits, assignments, attendance, things like that, and then there were multiple requests for additional specific academic support,” she said.
Regarding enrollment figures, Nason reported that around 955 students were enrolled in the academy as of Monday, but that number is fluctuating. She pointed to the timing of the Hope Scholarship program as part of the reason.
“We had about a hundred Hope Scholarship students. October is our month of kind of seeing which of our Hope students might stay, which of ours choose to step away,” she said.
Nason added that with a new cohort beginning on Monday, about 40 new students will be joining the program.
The academy is currently undergoing a period of monitoring by the state of West Virginia under its Comprehensive Support and Improvement Identification program. Nason said that leadership already met with the state once earlier this month and is implementing improvements identified internally while waiting on direct instruction.
“We’re moving forward with things we just know need to be happening, regardless of if we were in monitoring or not, and we’re just waiting to kind of hear the next steps from the state on what specific pieces we need to be doing for them,” she said.
Additional meetings between the state and the entire Virtual Prep Academy of West Virginia leadership team are scheduled for December 2 and 3.