The Grassroots Hybrid School Founder: Preparing Part 1-Vision

Vision

What is your vision for a hybrid school? As a founder, you need to have a vision…fuzzy though it may be…of what you want to build in order to build it. That might sound obvious, but sometimes a vision can be so fuzzy, you lose your way trying to get to it. The realities of the decisions that need to be made, people’s opinions, and even convenience(or panic!) can all contribute to lessening the zeal that may have first gotten you started. The clouds roll in and you can’t see where you were going. Don’t let it happen!

Are you building a hybrid school because of the hybrid model itself? Because of a philosophy of education that is not easily accessible? elsewhere  Both?

Is your driving motivation affordability? Flexibility? Community? Enrichment? Core academics? 

You will get input and opinions as you build your program. Someone won’t like some piece of what you want to build. If your vision is clear, you can take opinions for what they are. Just opinions.  

Write out your vision statement. Who do you want to serve and with what?  Be specific. Make it focused. Make it succinct.

You DO want to match this to the realities of your market and we will discuss this next. But start with your vision and then fit the market and vision together proactively and carefully.

What is a hybrid school anyway?

Hybrid schools are private* programs that combine part-time school attendance with part-time homeschooling. Unlike the homeschool cooperatives of the last few decades which require volunteer time exchange and have low fees, hybrids employ teachers and a typical school staff and parents pay with tuition instead of their time. 

Many hybrid programs run two days a week with three days spent at home, but they can run one or three days, full days or shorter days. They can run for an average full school year of 36 weeks or a longer or shorter school year. Assignments may or may not be required for home days and all academic subjects may or may not be covered at school. 

There are no rules!

However, good business sense says that  it behooves a founder to have a good read on what support families are looking for and what they can afford as far as both money and time. A founder who has a good handle on what homeschool law requires in his or her state as well, can craft a program that serves the local community with a quality program.

I have seen more and more young families whom I am dubbing  functional ‘hybrid schoolers’, not ‘homeschoolers’, despite the fact that they are legally homeschooling. Many of these families want the program to be the driver and guide of their child’s education because they want alternatives, but do not necessarily want to homeschool. For this reason, programs serving young families may want to build a robust program that gives at least the option of thorough guidance in all required subjects. 

In any case, a founder wants to build a program that fits his or her own vision and passion, but also takes into account the local market. Some geographic areas may support a three-day program, while others may only support one or two days. More hours will cost more, so socioeconomic averages and population density should both be considered when crafting a plan. 

Next time, we will discuss some different options for a hybrid school schedule.

*While theoretically a hybrid could be licensed with the state as a legal school with home as a satellite campus, grassroots founders generally organize as an LLC or Nonprofit and offer their service as a supplement to  families that are legally homeschooling and this is how I am defining hybrid schools. 

Budgeting the hybrid model

Having a good planning budget to work off of is one of the most essential pieces of groundwork for a solid hybrid program. As in any business, you will want to make sure costs are covered by revenue and there is a cushion of some type built in. The major expense categories are not too complicated, so let’s take a look at them:

Building: Rent and Cleaning. Depending on your situation, you will almost certainly need to budget for rent. Many hybrid schools will utilize churches as landlords, but unless the church is treating your program as a ministry that it funds, they will probably want a ‘donation’ to cover costs. This could be anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousands dollars per month. You will want an agreement in place before you decide on tuition. Make sure you discuss cleaning! A small program may get by with volunteers, but it is smart to at least plan on some sort of cleaning expense in your budget to prevent burnout. Nothing burns staff out faster than having to stay late to wipe bathrooms and sweep hallways every week!

Payroll: Administration, teacher, and aide pay will likely be your biggest total expense. Set your salary amounts based on a competitive pay for the skill set you want, and then add 10% for payroll taxes. I would recommend using a payroll company which will cost $50-100 per month (usually a set fee plus $6-10 per employee). It is very wise to also add in a category for substitutes if you teachers get any paid sick days. Paying subs on top of regular payroll can add up quickly! See the article preceding this one on Administration for the positions you will want to budget in for administration. Having an aide or assistant per 2 classes or so is also very beneficial (and some classes may need an assistant of their own). I can’t say often enough that planning for all these things from the start will keep you from having to find the money for them later on!

Curriculum and Supplies: If you purchase all your books and supplies used at school out of your budget, you will need to set aside several thousand dollars per year. A supply fee can also be useful for this, but keeping fees to a minimum usually makes families happier.

Training: A quality program will invest time and resources into training teachers. Especially if your philosophy is not standard fare, you may need to put quite a few hours into training time and/or resources. One way to do this is through books and podcasts, but you will find it beneficial to also pay your teachers for at least an inservice week.

Insurances: You probably will need Workers’ Compensation, Directors and Officers', Liability, and Property insurances. These will be a few thousand a year.

Miscellaneous. Always put in a category for surprises. A few thousand dollars extra to catch anything you didn’t think of or unexpected expenses will keep you in good shape when inevitable things come up.

After you have these totals, you should add another 10% as a cushion, and then work backward from that total for your tuition and class sizes. Low tuition and small classes rarely works, but there can be a nice sweet spot where classes are not too large and tuition isn’t either.

Administration in a hybrid school

Many of us who have grown grassroots hybrid programs have had to make adjustments to our job descriptions and roles every year. Part of this is because of size adjustments and resource limitations at the start, and part is because it is the learning process that comes with building something new. However, administration in a hybrid school is very similar to administration in a full-time school.

Let’s breakdown what some of the key administrative jobs needed. All of these are essential from the start in some capacity, but what is most likely to happen is that the same one or two people will do multiple jobs when first launching, and then the jobs will be separated out and delegated to new hires as resources and size grow.

• Education Director: This person is going to oversee teacher training and management. The job will involve hiring (which should be done with others’ input, either board members or fellow administrators), planning and leading teacher training and ongoing staff meetings, some form of feedback and evaluation to teachers, and should always include constant presence and ongoing conversations. Being on campus is essential.

• Curriculum Development: This may be the same person as above, but if not, they should work closely together during training to make sure curriculum is delivered by teachers effectively. Sometimes accommodating curriculum to the hybrid model takes some trial and error, so open communication with teachers is key! Theory and practice are not always the same :) This job can often be done off-campus, however, as long as there is good communication about implementation.

• Business Director: This person works closely with the Treasurer (or alone if not a nonprofit) to oversee budgets, bookkeeping and accounting, insurances, payroll, tuition management, and legal paperwork, as well as any fundraising. This doesn’t mean they have to do all of these things alone, but they do need to make sure it is getting done correctly. This person should also be part of communication with landlord (in conjunction with the education director). Always have proactive meetings regularly with your landlord!

• Admissions: This job may be just collecting registrations in the beginning, but can quickly grow into giving tours, creating a selection process for admissions, evaluation of new students, et cetera.

• Program Logistics: Field trips, events, volunteers, sign-ups…the bigger you grow the more time-consuming it becomes to keep this organized!

• Secretarial: There are often time-consuming secretarial tasks such as printing handouts, creating classlists and signs, acquiring supplies.

• Executive Director: At first, the founders will likely do most of the above jobs while also doing this one. But once the organization has grown, an executive director can really help manage the program as a whole and act as a liaison between the board and the administration and teachers. This person should be very good at keeping focused on the mission of the organization and translating it into good management of the above positions and the organizational structure as a whole. Being sure that everyone is communicating, processes and systems are being revisited and adjusted as needed, personality strengths are being used well while weaknesses are supported are management tasks that sometimes fall by the wayside as founders do all the things out of necessity in the beginning. However, a well-run organization takes care of its administration as well as its teachers and families. A director can help hold all the pieces together and make sure the organization is kept in top-notch condition.

Again, it is not likely each of these jobs is going to be its own person, at least for the first few years. But it is helpful to categorize the job descriptions even if one person does two or three of the jobs. The same person may do Curriculum and Education, another may do Business and Admissions, and a third may do Programs and Logistics. Don’t be afraid to change things as you grow, and always keep in mind that clear expectations and job descriptions (and frequent meetings!) are going to help with efficiency and productivity!

Hiring Teachers and Creating Culture

Teachers in a hybrid school are your most valuable resource. Just like in any school, these are the people implementing the vision and spending time with the kids on the front lines. Teachers should be trained well, supported throughout the year, and paid fairly. Applications should be thorough and interviews long enough to get a feel for the applicant’s strengths, experience, and personality.

What should you look for in a teacher?

• Loves kids and have the emotional and physical energy for them.

• Has experience teaching the age or subject in some capacity.

• Has managed groups of children.

• A willingness to learn new things and be part of a team.

If these things are in place, nearly everything else can be trained. So, what is less essential?

• Familiarity with exact curricula or philosophy

• Certification (unless you are following Education law. In a home-school supplement model, there is usually no regulation on teachers).

What to avoid?

• A sense of burn-out.

• A very independent personality that is not willing to implement your vision.

You are the one setting the culture of your program. You will do this with clear expectations, clear curriculum and schedule guidelines, support for easy communication, trainings (before school starts and during the year), staff meetings, and plenty of supportive presence. Your teachers should see you as the director, at the door, in the hallways, at recess, peeking into their schoolroom…and always with a sense of you being their helper/leader. You are setting them up for success by troubleshooting with them and communicating the goals of your program effectively, and you know what is going on because you are present!

Do these things and your hybrid school will be a place of camradarie and high standards, and your teachers will be happy to bring your vision to life!