Voices of West Virginia Academy

Heidi Treu’s Lack of Qualifications

Published

January 3, 2023

After John Treu orchestrated the firing of Rebecca Bobincheck as Executive Director in November 2022, the position of Executive Director was advertised, requiring the following qualifications:

There were a number of outstanding applicants, but John asserted that none of them satisfied the full list of qualifications. John then decided unilaterally to hire his wife Heidi Treu to serve as Executive Director, without consulting the rest of the Board, and “negotiated” her annual salary of $80,000. However, the following is the entirety of Heidi Treu’s work experience, as listed on her own LinkedIn profile:

From this, we can see that Heidi Treu only met one of the required qualifications (her Bachelor’s degree in Education) and none of the preferred qualifications. For the one qualification she did meet, 7 other applicants were more qualified, since they also had Master’s degrees in Education, with 2 applicants having PhDs. In fact, of the 25 other applicants, 10 satisfied each of the requirements for teaching, management, and education, and 3-5 satisfied each of the remaining requirements and preferences. Nonetheless, John hired his own wife. For convenience, the following table summarizes the list of advertised qualifications, and how Heidi failed to satisfy them:

		Heidi Treu’s Experience
Requirement	5+ years teaching	roughly 4 years (less if substitute teaching only counts partially)
	2+ years management	8 months
	Bachelor’s and/or Master’s degree in Education	Bachelor’s only (Master’s is in Public Health)
	IEP experience	None
Preference	teaching at primary and secondary	primary experience only
	experience with Mon Co BOE	None
	experience with parent support groups	None

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Welcome to our platform, a space dedicated to fostering transparency, excellence, and accountability at West Virginia’s pioneering charter school, West Virginia Academy. As a collective of current and former parents and staff, we wholeheartedly support the principle of school choice. We believe in the transformative power of education and the unique opportunities that charter schools can offer, and we hope that West Virginia Academy can eventually realize this potential.

However, we find ourselves at a crossroads due to the poor leadership of the school’s current administration: John Treu, Heidi Treu, and Holly Honeycutt. This blog serves as a critical lens, scrutinizing decisions and policies that, in our view, deviate from the school’s core mission of providing exceptional education to our children. We firmly believe that both current and prospective families deserve a candid account of the issues that exist at the school, so they can make informed decisions about their children.

That said, our goal is not merely to criticize, but to advocate for meaningful reform, and to support the school in making the changes that are so desperately needed. Through constructive feedback and open dialogue, we hope to help the school develop an administrative framework that embodies transparency, competence, and a profound commitment to the health and welfare of its students.

Our critique is driven by a firm belief in what West Virginia Academy could and should be. We are dedicated to ensuring that the foundation upon which our state’s first charter school is built is as strong and forward-looking as possible. We invite all stakeholders—administrators, teachers, parents, and the wider community—to join us in this vital conversation. Together, we can envision and work toward a future where the school embodies the ideals of transparency, excellence, and respect for all its members.

Let’s collaborate to create an educational environment that our children deserve. Your insights, experiences, and voices are crucial to this journey. Thank you for joining us in making West Virginia Academy the best it can be.