INSIDE

School district promotes
homeschooling opportunities

By Meg Olson

Point Roberts parents who home-school their children or are thinking of doing it may be able to access state education dollars by partnering with the school district.

On April 18 Home Connections principal Sherry Fakkema and program coordinator Keith Sanborn talked to parents about their program, which allows parents to enroll with the Blaine school district and so qualify for state education dollars. The twist is that the district only keeps 10 percent of the money and the rest, almost $3,800 per child enrolled, goes to the program which in turn provides support to home schooling families.

“I believe you guys should have choices in how you educate your children,” Fakkema said.

Parents whose kids enroll in the program work collectively to decide what to do with the money: renting space, hiring teachers for special classes, field trips or shared books and equipment. They also decide how much will go directly back to the families to pay for their educational supplies. “You decide what classes your kids take.” Fakkema said. “We all want the very best instruction for your kids. We want the experts. We’d rather go out in the field and find an artist to teach art, a history nut to teach history.”

In Blaine, Sanborn said, most core subjects are taught at home and the classes the program offers are more for enrichment and areas kids are having trouble in. “We tend to be heavier in the arts, things it’s harder to do at home,” he said of the classes offered. They also run math labs to help with specific assignments that are part of each individualized home-schooling program. In total the Blaine program is offering 65 class hours a week for students from kindergarten to graduation.

Another program Blaine has established is a library, that local parent Greg Williams said would be a real value to his family. He and wife Kelly home-school their four children, ages four to 10. Kelly Williams said they had started in Canada with strong financial and organizational support. “We went from huge support to, here, zero,” she said
“Do we have enough home-schoolers here to make it work?” asked Emily Smith, who, with husband Reid, is considering home schooling as a possibility for their three and five-year-old children. Fakkema said if Point Roberts decided to start its own program they could start small. “You might just start with one day a week for a math and science lab,” she said. “The point is you could pool your resources.”

The first step, Fakkema said, would be for local parents to get together and decide how they wanted the program to operate. “It’s hard to describe what it looks like because you’ll design it,” she said. “You need school support but the freedom to evolve.” Once a program is designed for the Point it would operationally become a partner of the Blaine Home Connections.

Reid Smith was concerned that money taken out of the system by home-schoolers in Home Connections wouldn’t be going to the local primary school, also an option the Reids are looking at for their children. “There’s an inherent conflict here,” he said.

“Philosophically the reason any school district agrees to a parent partnership is to help you, to pull home-school families into the community,” Fakkema said. She added the program was for families already committed to home-schooling, not as an different school option. “Home-schooling is hard work,” she said. “You can’t just get mad at a teacher and decide to home-school.”

Elaine Komusi, parent of a Point Roberts primary student and member of the local parent teacher organization, said superintendent Mary Lynne Derrington had suggested the program move up to Point Roberts where she felt many parents were seeking educational support – from private schools to home-school associations, north of the border. “This might offer them an opportunity to use our system,” she said.

For more information about the Blaine Home Connections program or to be put in touch with local parents considering starting a program in Point Roberts, contact Sanborn at 360/332-8182.