Cheryl Stahle becomes first West Virginian to win Changemaker award

Orginially published on Wtap - July 11th, 2024

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (WTAP) - Cheryl Stahle is the Academic Administrator for the West Virginia Virtual Academy and the first West Virginia recipient of the Changemaker Award.

The award, according to Stahle, is, "an acknowledgement for a handful of people across the country for their work and their advocacy for the charter school movement."

Stahle has been involved with charter schools for about 17 years in many roles. She says she started as a parent, then as a teacher, and then an administrator.

Now, Stahle is the Academic Administrator for WVVA, the largest charter school in the state. Stahle says they serve K-12, all 55 counties, and had about 1,700 kids through their doors last year.

Stahle refers to charter schools as quiet disruptors, changing education. She said that she thinks it is good for our state.

As mentioned, Stahle is the first West Virginian to win this award. She said she was surprised when she got the news.

"I'm very proud of that. I was stunned when I got the announcement because it went through a lot of vetting. It had to go, not only at the school level, the school board, and at the state level to send my nomination to Washington... And I was literally floored."

Stahle said winning this award is important for a lot of reasons.

"School choice is something new to our state. So, now we have a platform to talk about school choice and all the wonderful options that are available to families in our state. And what's nice is at a national level I can talk about the really cool things that are happening for children in West Virginia, and how we are working through lots of different models to support their learning needs, to support them as individuals, and to develop our future leaders... and that is a great way to get up every morning!"

Stahle talked about change and the future of education. When asked what she'd like to see happen in the future for education in West Virginia, Stahle discussed view of charter schools and hoping that they won't be viewed as being bad or negative.

"We are serving children in West Virginia just like any other school. And what I want us to do is be be more vocal, be more visible so that more families understand that there are choices. Where we are at West Virginia Virtual Academy, that may not be the best choice for every student, but we want to be a voice at the table - just like the micro schools, and the home schools, and the brick and mortar schools.... we are voice too, and families need that choice."

If you'd like to learn more about West Virginia Virtual Academy you can check out its website at wvva.k12.com.

The National Alliance for Public Charter School's website has more on the Changemaker awards and the winners from around the country, including Cheryl. Click here to read that.

For more information about West Virginia Virtual Academy, please visit https://wvva.k12.com/.

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