Calvary Gospel Church-Homeschool Ministry

December 9, 2014
Dear [redacted],
The formal name of our ministry is Calvary Gospel Home Educators. We are a non-profit ministry established to support the needs of homeschool families. We provide various services such as cooperative educational classes, classical tutoring and...

academic oversight. We are approved to supervise home instruction by the Maryland State Department of Education.[redacted] joined our ministry and enrolled her two children in cooperative educational classes, classical tutoring and academic oversight for the 2014-2015 homeschool year. [redacted]’s children attended cooperative classes and classical tutoring classes. The fees paid for these services go to the teacher or tutor who is conducting these classes.
In fact, [redacted] was a tutor for our classical program. Tutors are not employees of our ministry and do not receive a paycheck. Instead, we provide a stipend for the tutors who teach or tutor our classes as long as they have no balance due on their account.As you can see by looking at [redacted]’s attached invoice, she never paid us the balance due on her account. We did credit to her account her tutor stipend for the days she came to tutor which is not credited until the end of a monthly tutoring month. [redacted] tutored for four weeks in September and one week in October which $77.50 that was credited to her account.
[redacted] has an outstanding balance of $463 for our cooperative educational classes and our classical tutoring classes. Our student application clearly states that if you withdraw from our program a yearly financial commitment is still required.In regards to [redacted]’s academic concerns about her children getting assignments below their grade level, [redacted] told us that she was trained on the classical education method. The classical education method teaches on the classical trivium which teaches student in age groups not grade level. As such, students are grouped together based on an age group so our entire tutorial program is group as 1st-2nd graders, 3rd -4th graders, 5th – 6th graders, 7th- 8th graders and 9th – 12th graders. We include a math mastery classes that offers a review of math facts for High School students in algebra 1 and 2 skills. [redacted]'s son was not in the program long enough to get to our classes on Algebra 2.
In fact, [redacted] taught five classes in our tutor program in this method. She attended the required parent interview before being accepted in the program and has attended several tutor meetings. She is completely aware of this classical method and at no time did she bring to my attention that she had a concern.
In addition, our Physic was taught as advertised, however her son did not have his required Physics book for over a month in the program. Parents are responsible for making sure their students have the required textbook. All families were given a required book list during the summer.
[redacted] withdrawal has been far from professional. Her behavior has offended several of our parents as she publicly shared her frustration for not reading the oversight procedures and insisting that she had an appointment that was not confirmed for her oversight meeting. She has sent several emails to our church staff that displayed her lack of cooperation with our oversight program. As such we sent [redacted] mailed communication with a credit of the oversight portion of her fees and let her know that we are unable to hold her oversight meeting. This is due to her fail to cooperative or comply with our procedures.
We are under no obligation to supervise her oversight. She is able to get free oversight from Prince George's County homeschool office. We have provided her with all this information. A transcript is only offered to students in our oversight program who complete our yearly academic requirements and submit all necessary paperwork. So no transcript is due to [redacted].Finally, we are in no way punishing [redacted]. The legal financial obligations are applicable to every family in our program. We seek to provide support to homeschool families who need or desire our services.
In summary of the matters requested in her desired outcome of filing this compliant is as follows :#1 Paycheck: All tutor stipend due to [redacted] has been credited to her account (see invoice).#2 Transcript: No transcript is due to any student who has not completed a full year of academic program and complied with our program.#3 Supervised Oversight meeting: We have notified [redacted] in writing of our decision not to offer these services and have refunded all fees paid to her account (see invoice).#4 Refund for classical program classes: [redacted] is not entitled to a refund she has an outstanding balance due to our ministry for services she has already received and is by contract agreement due to pay fees for the upcoming months.We trust that this response has answered all of the matters presented by [redacted]. We intent to exercise our right to secure payment of her outstanding balance.Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I can be reached directly on ###-###-####.Blessings,
LaNissir J
Ministry Director