I was just beginning to feel confident I had the major part of next year figured out when I got a letter from CVA in my inbox today that says order to survive with the recent and proposed legislation the school is going to be making some changes. Some BIG changes in my opinion. First of all instead of basically being able to choose whatever curriculum we as parents thought was best for our kids we are going to be limited to a selection of pre-approved options. Now I’m sure they’ll choose some good programs, and hopefully some options for different kinds of learners in each subject, but I have doubts that some of what I want to use will be on the menu since they are from smaller or lesser known publishers. That isn’t a huge deal breaker for me since I actually planned to buy most or all of the books myself. The line that caught me was “Community-based Instructor (CBI) services, if offered at all…” What?! CBI’s are the fine arts and PE classes. There is actually a bill (SHB 2209) presented that eliminates PE from even being an option for ALE students (and it appears to disqualify consumable student material as well- art supplies, science materials, workbooks???). Seriously. And if it is revised or fails and they can offer PE courses it will be like the rest, from a pre-approved list so the options are similar in all areas. I have no idea what kinds of things that list would include, but admittedly something is better than nothing. Yes, I could come up with something on my own. It’s not likely to be the same caliber that a professional could offer, and certainly not as interesting or motivating (I am just not that kind of athletic person). And some things are just done better in a group- kids games are one of those. Yes, I could pay for them to attend karate, swimming or YMCA homeschool-specific classes (and may end up doing that) but that’s not going to be easy on the budget. So much for thinking it was all going to be smooth sailing.
Now don’t get me wrong. I totally understand why CVA is needing to streamline things to make it easier on staff and meet their own budget. And that they can’t do anything about what the State of Washington declares to be legal. The hard part is that I JUST found out what they could do for me, a nearly perfect situation and suddenly I see it floating away.
Oh, and on top of that (yes, there’s more!) it appears that our home school district is not willing to share. When I first contacted CVA they said we could do dual-enrollment so she could continue her on-campus classes at HCA and still take advantage of what CVA could offer. Cool, right? Apparently we live in one of the exception areas. Because there are exceptions to every rule. Grr. I do NOT understand why Evergreen would rather completely lose a student rather than share. At all.
All in all it’s been a very frustrating week.