Nov. 15—MORGANTOWN — It’s taken nearly 13 months, but the Wisdom Academy charter school planned for 13 South High St. has cleared the Morgantown Planning Commission.
The body voted 6-1 Thursday to approve the site plan with significant impact for the school, which plans to open in August 2025 for up to 100 students — from kindergarten through sixth grade.
Commissioner Darren Taylor, who represents the city’s first ward, was the lone dissenting vote, citing ongoing concerns about traffic in the restricted area next to Morgantown High School. While it is outside the planning commission’s jurisdiction, Taylor also noted that the property has no green space or recreation area for young students.
Thursday’s long-awaited approval came about two weeks after the school received the green light from the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board.
“We certainly believe that what we do adds value to Morgantown. It provides educational opportunities,” said Javaid Syed, president of the Wisdom Academy. “We want to be the model school in the state of West Virginia. We want to show people what education should be… We are committed to it. The commitment we are making is a very serious commitment. I do not want to play with the raising a child.”
The building in question is the former headquarters of Monongalia County Schools. It was purchased by three people under the name AST Properties.
One of these individuals, Abdul Tarabishy, first submitted a site plan application to the city in October 2023.
And that was it as Tarabishy and his partners went back to the drawing board again and again to allay fears of the committee focusing on pedestrian safety and pick-up/drop-off procedures in an area that was already congested and was chaotic because of MHS.
These concerns were echoed by a trio of Wagner Road residents, including Nancy Lynch, who said living conditions in the area are already significantly affected by existing traffic.
“I feel like this is asking for even more trouble than there already is,” she said. “We are at the point where we want to move because of the traffic jams, the noise and the inconvenience… I have to be careful when I get home or I won’t be able to get into my driveway or park in the allowed spots.”
The plan ultimately approved by the committee includes a number of commitments including: no parents queuing on High Street and limited access from High Street to the school car park; school cannot start before 9:00 am or end before 2:55 pm to avoid the crowds of MHS; the school has purchased a bus and will encourage families to use that service; parents will line up for the pick-up and drop-off areas along Prairie Avenue; trained crossing guards and possibly Morgantown Police Department personnel and/or off-duty police officers will be on site to usher students and control traffic.
It also came with a powerful advocate in the form of Dirar Ahmad, deputy director of quality assurance and project management for the West Virginia Division of Highways, who drove from Charleston to comment, not as a representative of DOH, but as a consultant for the school effort.
Ahmad confirmed that the traffic study, carried out by engineering firm HRG, indicated that the school would not have a “serious or negative” impact on traffic. He further indicated that WVDOH District 4 has committed to investigating what improvements to pedestrian safety and traffic control devices would be appropriate at the site.
“I assure you that I would not associate myself or impose my qualification as a professional engineer if I did not think this project is noble,” he said. “This project will help the community and this project will not have any serious consequences.”
As he has done since the issue first came before the agency, Commissioner Tim Stranko said the debate over school choice or the sincerity of applicants was not the issue before the agency.
“The question before us is the impact of this proposed use in this neighborhood. Is this the right place?” he asked. “They have come up with a wonderful plan on how we can minimize the impact, which suggests there is a potential impact. We all see that… It’s a great plan, but once we go through this and say this development is suitable for this location, we’re done. We don’t have a police force to come back and say, ‘Well, you made these five promises.’
To that end, Rickie Yeager, director of development services, said he would work with the city’s legal counsel to implement some oversight and accountability as a condition of commission approval.
Yeager said the city could require an annual access agreement to allow vehicular queuing on Prairie Avenue. If the school doesn’t live up to its promises, Yeager said one of the possible penalties could be revocation of the building’s occupancy permit.
Committee Chairman Peter DeMasters said he believes the applicants have done everything they can to minimize impacts to traffic and the neighborhood and focus on student safety. He compared the existing MHS traffic situation to a failing intersection, noting, “It’s already an F. It can’t be an F-minus.”
“I’ve been on this planning commission for probably 18 years or something like that. We see a lot of things coming our way and a lot of what I hear is, ‘Gosh, this is a great project, but not in my neighborhood.’ ,” DeMasters said. “Well, it has to be somewhere or we won’t do anything.”
