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Education

On Grounds School

The On-Grounds school at Academy Programs is located on campus at 5 Crosswind Drive, Fairmont, West Virginia. The school is under the West Virginia Department of Education’s WV SCHOOLS OF DIVERSION AND TRANSITION. The school has a principal, guidance counselor, teachers and support staff on site. The school is funded and operated by WVDST. Teachers are certified through the West Virginia Department of Education. The school offers a full curriculum for all students and their individual academic needs. Also, students may obtain a GED or attend college while at Academy Programs through the guidance of OIEP staff.

In addition to a regular and full school year which begins in August and concludes in June, the school at Academy Programs offers two summer sessions in which students may earn credits towards high school graduation. For more information call the school at 304-363-3406.

Mike Ferguson

Mike Ferguson

School Administrator

Michael Ferguson grew up in Belington, WV on a small family farm with five brothers and a sister.

He graduated from Philip Barbour High School in 1989, then graduated from Fairmont State University with a bachelor’s degree. During that time, he worked in Institutional Education at Elkins Mountain School as treatment staff.

Michael returned to Fairmont State College to begin working on a Master’s degree in Special Education and began his teaching career in special education in a self-contained classroom in a middle school.

He returned to Phillip Barbour nine years later to teach special education in grades 9-12.

He also earned a certification in Educational Leadership from Salem University.

He began his first Principalship at Belington Middle School and after two years then moved to the Central Office in Barbour County as the Director of Student Services/Technology and was in that position for almost 8 years before accepting the position at Academy Programs.

Michael has been married for almost 28 years to his wife Tonya, who is the Career Tech Director/Assistant Principal at Philip Barbour. They have two children; Stephen and Michaela who have both moved away to start successful careers as a lawyer and banker.

His hobbies are fishing, hunting, riding his side-by-side and recently purchased a permanent campsite near Seneca Rocks where he plans to spend many weekends in the mountains.