Home Connections

Well, It seems that Home Connections will be a bigger part of our life in the future so I thought I would take some time to explain it.  I am doing this because it is unlike anything else I have ever heard of or seen before.

Home Connections is our school district's parent partnership program.  The one wherein students enroll in public school yet most of their learning takes place at home and the school gets paid for it.  So of course it is not really homeschooling, it is actually under the alternative education part of state law.  We are 50% enrolled so we are 50% home schoolers and 50% public schoolers and the district gets 50% funding for that student. Complicated?, OH YES! and even more so cuz then you have do determine which part of the law you are paying attention to, but I will save you from that.

I really do like Home Connection's learning model.  It is unique from any other PPP I have seen.  They offer enrichment classes for grades k-10 (technically through grade 12, but there aren't many of those.  I'll explain in a moment.) These classes are taught by some amazing teachers, many are the parents of the students.  Because of the laws getting stricter, more and more certificated teachers are showing up.  In grades 6 through 10 there is an additional tract from which to choose.  The first is the enrichment course.  Students can continue to take enrichment courses at HC and complete the rest of their schooling at home.  OR students can enroll in Core Classes.  The students take their History, English, Math, and Science at HC and receive credit from the district.  This makes HC as close to a charter school as they can without being one. (I would say private, except that it is publicly funded under the school district).  The classes are small 13-16 students. And Parents are very much involved.

It is also a prep for running start.  They do not offer 11th and 12th grade classes because those students are encouraged to move to the community college and receive dual college/high school credit and degrees.  It really is a good program. Although, as an independent-homeschooler-at-heart, I resent the additional hoops I have to go through.  But I get that feeling every time I have the opportunity to deal with government agencies.

HC has plenty of hoops to jump through too, hoops aren't just for the families.  For example the parent/teachers used to be considered contracted teachers.  That rule changed last year.  They now have to be part time employees of the district.  However, with that comes a rule that part time employees cannot work more than so many hours a week.  There happened to be one teacher who taught at least 10 different classes- some fabulous ones: Spanish for kids, tumbling, ballet, local history classes and a lot more.  They were all really popular.  But she had to drop more than half of them because that put her over that limit. So, after about 10 years of teaching them, no more tumbling or ballet.  Fortunately, she has decided to open her own gymnastics/dance studio next fall.

I would love to take HC's program/model and recreate it outside of "Public Education."  There are some real strengths there.  (I just met someone who said the same thing.  I think I might have to join forces with her.)

Anyway I avoided HC for the longest time.  I have reservations against PPP's in general.  I do believe their existence and public support pose a threat to the continued existence of independent homeschooling.  I have done quite a bit of research in this area.  They do fill a need, and I don't think they should necessarily all go away.  But there is a danger simply from the fact that both PPP's and Home schoolers claim the title of Home Schooling.  If they were differentiated in some way, things would be better, but I digress.  So anyway, I kept away.  But I also realized I have to work with what I have (like politics).  I also am part of a marriage and have learned to trust my husband's council.

We enrolled last year as an experiment.  The main draw was guitar classes.  I wasn't sure if it would work at all because of student teaching in the middle of the year, but we made it work.  I stuck to it again this year reluctantly, again for guitar.  But something happened this year - ok, several little somethings, not the least of which has to do with that council of my husband thing.  Consequentially I think I am almost ready to become committed to being there.  It is such a good learning environment and the people there are great.

I am planning a couple of classes I want to teach and offer there.  So far we have only participated in the enrichment, but I think we will be taking advantage of the core track too.  We might just be in there a while.