Home schooled students will now be able to attend a class at North Montgomery schools and participate in extra-curricular activities.
The school board approved the policy change at Monday’s regular board meeting.
Previously, a student being home schooled was not allowed to enroll in a class nor participate in sports or any other extra-curricular activity. With the policy change, students will be allowed to enroll in a class, and when doing so, would become eligible to participate in other activities.
“I believe we are missing some students who could benefit from this change,” Superintendent Dr. Coleen Moran said. “I think allowing home school students the opportunity to take a class they are very interested in would be beneficial to the student and to our schools.”
Moran said funding to pay for the home school student would come from the state.
Moran said requests from parents of home school children has been minimal. However, the requests have been on the rise.
“We have a home schooled student who is very interested in FFA,” Moran said. “The student would like to take an ag class and be in FFA, which under the old policy it would not be allowed.”
Moran said if a home schooled student wanted to play football, the student must be enrolled in the fall semester. If a student wanted to participate in basketball, the student must be enrolled into a school class for both semesters.
Per the new policy, to be eligible for NMCS classes, the home schooled student must have been home schooled for the past three years.
Southmont already allows this option to home school students, and Moran said Crawfordsville was moving to pass a similar policy.
The board also approved several policies relating to the corporation change from trimesters to semesters beginning this school year.
The board accepted the following resignations: Sajel Patel, middle school special services; Molly French, high school social studies; and Lydia Dugard, Pleasant Hill ELA instructor.
The board approved the following new hires: Mary Moore, Sugar Creek library media assistant; Brittany Eavey, middle school jump start math; Nancy Ton, middle school jump start; Latosha Copeland, middle school language arts jump start; Kaycee Cummings, Sugar Creek ELA assistant; Jenny Kixmiller, middle school math/physical education; and Donovan Haworth, high school instructional assistant.
The following transfers were approved: Carrie Reichert from fifth grade to fourth grade at Sommer; Nicole Stigall from fourth grade to third grade at Sommer; Dawne Peterson from third grade to second grade at Sommer; Kyla Maxey from first grade to third grade at Sommer; Jamie Sankey from first grade to second grade at Sommer; Elizabeth Murdock from instructional assistant to high school social studies; and Jordan Kiger from special education to Kindergarten at Sommer.
