OFFICE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD & STUDENT SERVICES

Go to Alternative Education, early care services, Nonpublic School Services, social services or Special Education.

The Office of Early Childhood and Student Services administers all direct service programs to children and students. Programs include Child Care, Head Start, Early Intervention, Alternative Education, Special Education, Nonpublic School Services, social services, and other student and family programs and services.

Cheri L. Woyurka has been with the BCIU since 1991. She serves the BCIU as director of the Office of Early Childhood and Student Services. Cheri has experience working with children from preschool through school age in regular education and special education settings. Throughout her career, Cheri has worked as a classroom teacher, itinerant teacher, and supervisor of special education.

Cheri earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary/early childhood education from Millersville University, and a master’s degree in special education and Supervisory Certification in Special Education from Penn State University.

Wendy M. Steensland serves the BCIU as assistant director of the Office of Early Childhood and Student Services, where she is responsible for Child Care, Head Start, and Pre-K Counts.

During her career, Wendy has taught various elementary grades and has worked as a Title 1 project coordinator and an IST teacher. In 1990, she began her career with the BCIU as the project coordinator of an inclusion initiative. This led to the opportunity to serve as a secondary alternative education teacher. She joined the Training and Consultation team as a consultant to the districts in 1997. Wendy was named project administrator in 2003, program administrator in 2005, and senior program administrator in 2007 in the Curriculum, Staff Development, and Related Services Division. She assumed her current position when the agency’s organizational chart was restructured in 2009.

Wendy earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from Davis and Elkins College and a master’s degree in elementary education from West Virginia University. She holds a K-12 Principal’s Certificate and a Reading Certificate.