West Michigan Academy of Environmental Science is committed to open, honest and transparent information sharing. Since the opening of our school, we continue to publish all of our data online, including financial, academic, student, and staff, on the Transparency Reporting and the MI School Data buttons on the homepage. Our track record of making information public is a testament to the strong relationships between our board, staff, families, authorizer and education service provider. Our parents trust us!

The school budgets are created as an instructional spending plan, in which every dollar spent contributes to student achievement. Teachers and staff are fully engaged and held accountable so they too can own the results of the school as a whole, rather than in segmented parts. All decisions are made with a whole-child, student-focused lens.

Just like any other public school in the state of Michigan, we follow Public Act 277 and all of the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) statutes, rules, and expectations because we are public schools regulated by the MDE. Per recommendations by MDE, MSBO, MASA, and MASB, we use the Munetrix Transparency Reporting system. We led the way by being one of the first schools to use the “Munetrix.” This transparency system gathers and publicly posts all required information, including audited financial reports, inspection reports, and the emergency drill logs of our school. Our information is available to the public and can be reached via the Michigan mitten on the first page of our website. Found here.

An additional layer of accountability lies in the relationship between our school and the authorizer. Authorizer compliance audits of services in addition to annual financial audits by independent auditors are a way of life for charter schools. We use the document submission system, most often the online Epicenter tool, to provide the authorizers with an ongoing, almost daily schedule.