Schooling standards dispute persists.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

ELMIRA - The lapse of a contract between the Fern Ridge School District and HomeSource appears to be rooted in a misunderstanding of state requirements, but it will take a written clarification before the school board is ready to sign off on the home-schooling center's terms, board Chairwoman Kris Galloway said this week.

In the meantime, 47 home-schooled students from the Elmira and Veneta area are missing out on HomeSource classes this term, joining another 39 in the Junction City School District, which also had a rift with HomeSource during contract negotiations.

"There's a lot of anger in the Fern Ridge area over this because it happened at the last minute," said Donna Jones, the mother of three such students.

The popular Bethel-area resource center, which opened 10 years ago, offers a wide range of free classes meant to supplement a home-schooled education. It serves nearly 500 students, using state education funds channeled through contracting school districts.

In late August, the HomeSource board rejected the district's proposed new contract terms, primarily because they included a provision requiring that all HomeSource instructors in core academic areas meet the federal "highly qualified" standards in the No Child Left Behind law. For teachers to meet those standards, they must be state-certified in the specific subject area in which they teach.

While some HomeSource instructors are certified, most are professionals and college instructors, executive director Paula Praus-Williamson said - and the state statute pertaining to private alternative education providers says that's OK.

Specifically, it says such programs are not required to employ "only" licensed teachers.

While that implies that one or more must be licensed, the statute does not specify how many, noted Cliff Brush, an education specialist at the state Department of Education.

Brush, who coordinates alternative education programs, said he does not believe that anything in federal or state law requires Fern Ridge to ensure teacher certification at private alternative education programs with which it contracts. But he said school districts have the right to make such demands.

In a meeting with Brush last month, Fern Ridge officials came away with a more stringent interpretation of the law, Galloway said.

Because the statute says private alternative education programs must comply "with all rules and statutes applicable to public schools," the superintendent and board believed that meant they should meet the district's own requirements for highly qualified teachers, as defined by the No Child Left Behind law, she said.

"You have to look at it this and say, `Are we going to take this literally?' ' Galloway said.

Also causing concern and confusion among Fern Ridge officials was a Sept. 8 memorandum from the Department of Education "rescinding" a 1995 advice letter from then-Deputy Superintendent Bob Burns to then-Bethel Superintendent Kent Hunsaker, which apparently laid the groundwork for long-running statute violations by both the Bethel district and HomeSource.

For example, until the Department of Education cracked down last year, no HomeSource students were taking required Oregon Statewide Assessment tests, and virtually all the public pass-through dollars for HomeSource were claimed by the Bethel district, rather than the students' home districts, as required by law. HomeSource, like other private alternative education providers, gets 80 percent of net per-pupil operating funds, with the contracting school district keeping the rest.

The recent memo clarified the resident pupil requirements, as well as procedures for student placement.

"There's a rich oral history of what's gone on since 1995, so we're trying to establish a rich documented history of what goes on from here," Brush said, noting that similar problems have surfaced elsewhere in Oregon, most of them involving home-schooling resource centers operated by school districts. One private Portland-area program similar to HomeSource recently ended its district contracts - "by mutual agreement," he said - and is now fee-based.

White and several other HomeSource parents and board members attended Monday's Fern Ridge board meeting to air their concerns about the lapsed contract. Galloway told the group she would seek clarification from the Department of Education and hoped to be able to work with HomeSource.

"We do want to work with them," she said. "We always have wanted to work with them."

Praus-Williamson said she came away optimistic that the contract can be salvaged in time for winter term, which begins Jan. 3.

"They were very, very nice about it," she said. "I was very pleased about the meeting. They want to serve the kids."

HomeSource's disagreement with the Junction City School Board appears more intractable, however.

Officials there said they would agree to refer students to HomeSource only for "core content," classes, such as math, science and language arts. They drew the line at classes in such areas as painting, tennis and even foreign languages, prompting HomeSource to turn down the contract.

Praus-Williamson contends that most, if not all, HomeSource classes fall within the state's definition of core content, which includes physical education, art and health, and that it's up to parents to determine which classes are best for their children.

Junction City Superintendent Kathleen Rodden-Nord said board members' concerns go beyond the appropriateness of using public funds for knitt- ing and horseback riding classes for home-schoolers.

Officials there, too, are concerned about the district's oversight role and the new interpretations of the alternative education law.

They have struggled to see how an entity like HomeSource fits in, she said, and are leery of taking on responsibility for the education of home-schooled students.

For the most part, this year's contract discussions with districts went smoothly for HomeSource, Praus-Williamson said.

While the loss of students in Fern Ridge and Junction City added up to a $128,200 hit, the center still has contracts with the Eugene, Springfield, Bethel, Crow-Applegate-Lorane, Creswell, Harrisburg, Marcola, McKenzie, Pleasant Hill and South Lane school districts.

Meanwhile, the Oregon Secretary of State's Office is conducting an audit of the state's alternative education programs, private and public, to make sure there's no misuse of public funds.