Attendance Director for Tucker County Schools Amber Kyle presented data on homeschooling in the county at the September 4 board meeting. Kyle reported 59 students are homeschooled this year, including all of the students that attend Mountain Laurel Learning Cooperative’s Learning Center.
This number is down from last year, which was 66. “Over the last four years, there has not been a lot of growth, compared to other counties,” Kyle said.
A notice of intent to homeschool is required that informs the school board a student will no longer attend public school. The student’s name, address, and age are required on the intent notice. “That’s all they have to provide us,” Kyle said. Public school teachers complete the required homeschooling portfolio evaluations.
Homeschooling providers must have a high school degree. “In 2016, that’s when all the power went to the homeschooling parent,” Kyle said. “Basically, where we are now with state code is homeschool parents have all the rights and privileges, and we just have to accept it as their rights and privileges.”
The board discussed the loss of funds due to homeschooling at a previous meeting. The school system does not see a direct decrease in funds when a child is homeschooled. “It still correlates, but not as directly as it used to be,” Superintendent Alicia Lambert said. School funding is not provided per child; however, with fewer students, there are fewer opportunities for teachers.
Three intent to homeschool requests were acknowledged at the meeting.
During the meeting, audiology services, Medicaid-eligible billing services, and Medicaid monitoring provided by Marion County Board of Education were approved. “It’s just based on what we’ve done in the past with RESA. These people are employed through Marion County Schools, and we just reimburse Marion County for those services,” Special Education Director Kim Lipscomb said.
A contract for Karen Hott as a hearing impaired instructor for the school system was approved. “These are people who are hard to find. We are trying to not have so much cost with this, but I have looked literally everywhere for people, and they know how valuable they are,” Lipscomb said.
Kelly Thompson was hired as the Assistant Principal at Tucker Valley pending her background check and contract release from Randolph County Schools.
Robin Nestor, Dale Lansberry, Michelle Mullenax, and Lauren Godfrey are the mentor teachers for the school year.
The next Tucker County Board of Education meeting will be held on Monday, September 17 at 4:30 p.m.
