Learning Academy To Complement Home-Schooling
A group of home-schooling parents will soon send their students to the very public school system they left behind.
But the parents are happy to trade a few hours of instruction a week for a program that will help them broaden their home-based curriculum.
Central Valley School District will open the Spokane Valley Learning Academy in October to provide enrichment classes for home-schooled students in grades K-12 from anywhere in the Spokane area.
“We realized there’s a need for a partnership with some of our families,” said Tere von Marbod, director of curriculum for Central Valley. “By offering classes through the academy, we can help them feel comfortable that everything’s going O.K., that there’s a little safety net underneath.”
District officials polled about 200 home-school parents last year to determine if they would be interested in an academy that offered courses on teaching or enrichment classes for their children.
The district received an overwhelming response in favor of the enrichment classes, with parents requesting specific help in the areas of art, science, physical education and languages.
“We’re covering the basic topics pretty well,” said Brent Bischoff, the father of two students who will attend the academy this fall. “But for things like foreign languages and the other specialized areas, assistance from the school district could be helpful.”
Bischoff also added that he is pleased the district will offer help on the yearly evaluations that home-school parents are required to prepare on their children’s academic progress.
The Learning Academy will be housed in a self-contained portable classroom outside Keystone Elementary, and the students will have access to the school’s gym and computer facilities. Students will be grouped into classes with kids of similar ages which will meet five hours a week.
The district has hired Vicki Inks, a Valley native, to head up the Academy. Inks will coordinate the center and work closely with parents to develop the curriculum for the enrichment classes. She’s been a teacher for 23 years and most recently taught middle school in Grandview, WA.
“Most of the home-school parents do a fantastic job,” said Inks, who also is a fluent Spanish speaker. “But I think it’s a wonderful idea to enrich these kids educations.”
Funding for the program will come from the state, since the district will be allowed to enroll the home schoolers as full-time Central Valley students. The district will be required to feed 70 percent of the state funding back into the program.
Participating parents will receive a $300 credit to offset the costs of any non-sectarian curriculum materials they purchase for their students. Central Valley is modeling this program after those already in place in Wenatchee, central Kitsap County and Edmonds, Wash.
The district hopes to enroll 30 students for their first year, which begins on Oct. 2. It is still accepting applications.
“I’m interested in seeing what comes out of it,” said Bischoff. “(To see) if it adds the benefit to our children’s education that we hope it will.”
This sidebar appeared with the story: INTERESTED? Metting time
An informational meeting for interested parents is planned for Aug. 24 at 6:30 p.m. It will take place in the Keystone Elementary library, at 612 S. McDonald. The teacher, Vicki Inks, will speak and applications packets will be available.