The Renaissance Academy proposes to modernize STEM and career and technical education for Mon County high schoolers. Here are the details.
Early voting is underway in the 2024 primary election. Among the Mon County ballot questions is a $142.6 million bond issue to build the proposed Renaissance Academy, a 21st century update to the county’s STEM and career and technical education.
The facility—which has been under discussion for the past several years as part of Monongalia County Schools’ 2020–30 Comprehensive Education Facilities Plan—is the school system’s answer to the quick pace of change of technology. For our students and our community to keep up, says Michael Green, our educational system has to change with it. Green is a Monongalia County business representative member of the West Virginia Public Education Collaborative and a former president of the state Board of Education,
We need a model of career and technical education that has a strong focus on STEM, Green says. The Renaissance Academy would fill that need by providing hands-on STEM and career and technical education (CTE) to students in grades 9 through 12 from all three Monongalia County high schools. “This should be viewed as the new MTEC—the new Monongalia County Technical Education Center.”
Most of our students don’t earn four-year college degrees, Green says. At the same time, West Virginia has 30,000 job openings right now and many more to come—40% of workers in the trades will retire over the coming decade.
For students who are heading into the trades or who don’t yet know what they want to do, the Renaissance Academy would modernize CTE equipment and teaching methods, Green says. Those headed to college could go there for their STEM classes and hands-on STEM projects. Students would attend the Renaissance Academy for two or three days a week and their home schools the other days.
Transportation for students attending the new school would work the same as it does for those who attend MTEC—they would be bused from and to their home high schools at the beginning and end of the school day. In 2020, in anticipation of the proposed STEM and CTE school, Mon County Schools bought 135 acres on Blue Horizon Drive in Cassville, a location near major roads and between the county’s three high schools. The cost of the land was about $1.5 million.
The new school would require additional busing capacity, Lytle says—MTEC serves about 400 students, and the Renaissance Academy would be expected to serve about 750. Some new teachers would be needed, too. With reassignment of MTEC and some current high school teachers to the new facility plus the participation of industry partners in classroom training, he guessed, when pressed, that about 10 new teachers would be needed.
How would the additional buses, bus drivers, teachers, staff, and service personnel be paid for? “The baseline funding comes out of the state funding formula,” he says. “The rest comes out of county funds—some of that comes from the excess levy and some from the general budget.” The state funding formula is based on enrollment, and that is expected to increase in the high schools, he says, pointing to needed building expansions that have been made at Brookhaven, Eastwood, Ridgedale, and Suncrest elementary schools in recent years. “And this academy and what it’s going to do for the economy in the county will lead to even more.”
Some Monongalia County residents have suggested that underused mall space could have been repurposed as the Renaissance Academy facility. Lytle says that’s one of the options that was considered, but the mall facilities are aging—the Morgantown Mall opened over 30 years ago and the Mountaineer Mall nearly 50 years ago—and were designed and built for very different purposes. “They don’t really lend themselves to what we’re looking for as far as new high-tech laboratory and CTE spaces.”
The Renaissance Academy is modeled on the Cherry Creek Innovation Campus in Denver, Colorado, which Green says has demonstrated benefits beyond academic and career success. “Their kids are loving going to school because they’re seeing the practical application of what they’re learning in the classroom,” he says. “Attendance issues are going away, and drug and alcohol issues are improving because kids are engaged—they’re using their hands to create things, and they know they’ll leave the facility with the opportunity for excellent-paying jobs.”
An ongoing commitment to keeping the county’s education system modern helps employers recruit employees, Lytle says. “We have industry partners who are saying we need to do this,” he says. “Their first question is, ‘How are your high schools?’ and historically, we‘ve been able to say they’re first in the state. But we want to be the best in the region. And I think it’s really important that we start teaching in the way we work in the real world—the way kids will work once they get out of school.”
A bond issue for the Renaissance Academy is on the May 14 ballot. Successful passage would cost the average household 44¢ a day, according to an analysis of property values. Construction would begin in 2025, and the school would be open to students in the fall of 2027, making it available in its first year to students who are in 8th grade now.
To preview the ballot, scroll down to your precinct here. Early voting continues through Saturday, May 11, 9 a.m.–5 p.m., at the locations listed on the same web page. Primary Election Day is Tuesday, May 14, 6:30 a.m.–7:30 p.m.
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What efforts are being made to connect to the existing and underused facilities at WVU, such as the LaunchLab, the MakerLab, and the brand-new Lane Innovation Hub? Given the struggle with recruitment at WVU and the amazing manufacturing facilities available to Morgantown students, the support for another $150,000,000 facility sounds wasteful.