Orginially published on Herald Dispatch – May 18th, 2024
One of seven winners from across the country, West Virginia Virtual Academy (WVVA) academic administrator Cheryl Stahle received the 2024 Charter School Changemaker Award from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
“This was an amazing honor,” Stahle said. “I was so humbled to be recognized on a national stage for my work in the charter school movement.”
The first West Virginian to receive the national award, Stahle traveled to Washington, D.C., to accept the award during a two-day event May 14-15 as part of National Charter Schools Week May 12-18.
Other Changemaker award recipients from throughout the U.S. include a student, parent, executive director, school founder, former state lawmaker and school administrator.
“Cheryl serves as a beacon of light, and it fills us with immense pride to celebrate her well-deserved recognition,” Doug Cipoletti, executive director of WVVA, said in a news release.
“Throughout her career, she seems to have left an indelible mark on the lives of many students not only in West Virginia, but across the country. Her steadfast commitment to reshaping education and fostering meaningful change is nothing short of inspiring to all who know her.”
As part of their time in the nation’s capital, Stahle and other award recipients attended a reception and were featured on a panel before Congress, during which Stahle said she wanted to focus on feeding children.
“Virtual charter schools are explicitly denied access under the USDA laws for meals,” she said. “So we can’t feed our kids. We have 1,300 kids in West Virginia, and if you look at this at a national level, there are 200,000 among the Stride schools that are denied the opportunity for food; that needs to be changed.”
Changemaker winners also toured Capitol Hill to meet with different congressional delegations. From meeting the needs of kindergarteners through providing dual credit classes for high schoolers, Stahle said she was excited to share how WVVA is benefiting its students and to learn what other schools are doing so she can continue to build WVVA’s academic foundation.
“I got to meet with the West Virginia senators and representatives because there are things that we need in West Virginia, and I had an opportunity to express that,” Stahle said. “I’m excited to have that voice. We really celebrated what West Virginia is doing.”
“One of the things the Alliance wants us to do is continue to advocate on a national stage, continuing to celebrate what we have in West Virginia and educating — because we have to educate our families in the state because this is still new, and new is different,” she continued. “We’re going to do this because it’s the best thing to do for the school.”
Broadband access and foster care are other issues Stahle brought up to lawmakers. While broadband access has gotten better in the state, especially in rural areas, it can be improved, she said. Additionally, Stahle said it is difficult to enroll children in foster care in a virtual charter school.
“Because you need to have eyes on them,” she said. “We have eyes on kids, and because of the transient nature of children in foster care, we are typically not viewed as a first option. We should be, because that computer can go anywhere that kid goes, so just looking at us through a different lens.”
During her time in D.C., Stahle said she wanted to also work on challenging what she calls misperception regarding virtual charter schools.
“We are not less than other schools, we are different from, and I want people to understand what makes us different and to start to change that perception,” Stahle said. “We have clubs, speakers, programs and special needs groups. We can teach kids how to do cane training on a computer; we can do anything and then some, and I want to get that message out.”
Knowing she had been nominated for the Changemaker award, Stahle said she was stunned when she found out she had won.
“I am your quiet disrupter,” Stahle said. “I am in here building systems and processes. I’m successful and I make a difference at that level. I thought an executive director or somebody like that could potentially get it, and then it was me, so I was very surprised. I was very humbled because there are some amazing people in this state that are doing charter work and to be recognized out of all those folks just is very touching.”
Stahle first became involved with charter schools 17 years ago when her son experienced health issues and needed options and a different type of education. At the time, she and her family lived in Pennsylvania, where charter schools were becoming increasingly popular. Getting involved as a parent, Stahle then found work in charter schools.
“Virtual charter schools were perfect for my family,” she said. “My son just flourished as a student. Then once I saw what was out there, I was like, this is what I want to do. So I moved out of a brick-and-mortar environment into a charter school. It’s where I found my passion. It was just so freeing as an educator.”
When Stahle and her family returned home to West Virginia 11 years ago, she said she closely followed charter school legislation until it first passed in 2019, allowing for the first charter schools to open in the state.
Powered by K12, a Stride company, WVVA launched with the 2022-2023 school year, and Stahle said she is changing and touching the lives of children every day.
“I can’t think of anything more noble or more important than that,” she said. “I can serve students and serve them differently, meeting their social, emotional and educational needs. You can do amazing stuff with kids and without the constraints of a building.”
Enrolling students in grades K through 12 tuition free, Stahle credits the culture of WVVA and its passionate and dedicated teachers with its continued success.
“Our teachers are wickedly creative, and that translates well with our students,” she says. “We’ve really broken down barriers for kids; we’ve made education accessible and not scary, and children are succeeding. We can do that because we have the flexibility to personalize education. We offer so much for kids, and the way we’re structured is, if you’re interested in something, just tell us and we’ll figure out how to make it happen.”
As an accredited, full-time online public charter school, WVVA has abundant resources, and its teachers are West Virginia certified and teaching in their certifications, Stahle said. She recommended anyone considering charter schools to look into WVVA.
“That’s really how I view this job and how I wish people would view charter schools — and in particular, our charter school — because we are here to support families,” she said. “We are raking in the awards and the accolades and it’s not because of me — it is 100% because of the teachers, and my job is to get barriers out of their way. I’m phenomenally proud of the teachers.”
To learn more about West Virginia Virtual Academy, please visit https://wvva.k12.com/.
