The Mineral County Board of Education is scheduled on Tuesday to take up the topic of home schooling once again.

A proposed policy for home school instruction, which the board members have not yet decided they even need, is on the agenda.

The issue has been a hot one for the board since early April, when a large number of home school supporters crowded into the board meeting room in protest of the removal of three students from classes they were taking at county schools.

The controversy centered around what constitutes a home-schooled student as opposed to a full-time public school student, and whether Superintendent of Schools Skip Hackworth had the authority to have the students removed from all but two of their classes in February.

When he took the action, Hackworth said home-schooled students could take no more than 50 percent of their classes in school without being classified as a full-time public school student.

The home school supporters questioned how he had the authority to make that decision without an official county policy in place.

“There is no policy as far as we know about the number of classes a home-schooled student can take,” supporter Bretta Spencer said, urging the board members to “put aside your personal views of home schooling ... and review the manner in which this entire matter was handled.”

At a subsequent board meeting, Hackworth presented the board with a proposed policy regulating home school instruction and limiting the amount of public instruction for which home-schooled students are eligible to less than 50 percent.

Before the board could decide on whether it wished to adopt a policy, both Home School Coordinator Linda Marsh and Keyser High School Principal Charles Wimer told the board members that the guidance counselors and other faculty members had a number of questions about what constitutes a full-time student, how home-schooled students should go about picking the public classes they wish to take and how their programs of study should be monitored, among other issues.

Wimer questioned the fairness of home-schooled students picking their own courses and not being required to follow programs of study or requirements of graduation like the full-time students.

He said that the county’s computer system “calculates all students the same, and home-schooled students must, therefore, be manually removed from our reports when determining class rankings, valedictorian, salutatorian, Goldsworthy scholars, honor societies and scholarships, to name a few.”

He urged the board to adopt a policy which, he said, “would be advantageous in helping us answer these questions.”

“I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but we need to find the answers,” board vice president Terry LaRue agreed, noting that whatever policy they might adopt would not go into effect until the 2008-2009 school year.

At that time, president Mary Aronhalt directed Hackworth to research the answers to the counselors’ questions and have them back to the board no later than the June 24 meeting.

“We need more information before we make any decision,” she said.

Although the time has not lapsed, the topic is listed on Tuesday’s agenda as being for “discussion/possible action.” The board could decide if it wants to adopt a policy. If so, the next step is to place a proposed policy out for public comment prior to consideration of adoption.

Tuesday’s meeting gets under way at 5 p.m. in the administrative offices at 1 Baker Place.

Contact Liz Beavers at lizbeavers@yahoo.com.