Beacon Academy

Connor and Caleb are going to a different school now.  We pulled Caleb at the semester in January due to some behavior's that he was having trouble with.  We have struggled with that kid for way too long and we had had enough.  We had researched and checked into this other school during Christmas break and prayed about it for a few weeks.  We felt good about it but were worried about him not doing his work at this school and that we would not have any recourse or back up to help us.  After another incident happened that had nothing to actually do with school but was an incident that gave us the push to make the decision to pull him.  In all of these things I was remarkably calm and really felt the spirit helping me trying to help my child.  Don was out of town so of course I had to deal with it on my own but that is ok.  We enrolled him in Beacon Academy the week of semester exams.  He had to finish those exams to get credit for the semester and then I went and unenrolled him at the high school.  Beacon Academy is a virtual high school where they do everything online and via email but they also have a school building where the kids can go any time during the weekmformtutorung help. The week he started he had a 4 hour orientation that he had to attend and I had to come in to the school a few hours later for a parent orientation.  He had to learn about how the school worked and what was expected of him. They gave him a computer that he gets to keep through out the school year to do his work on. He was pretty excited about that.  Since his grades were so poor he is basically on academic probation indefinitely which means that we have to take him in once a week so they can help him stay caught up.  I  have my own observer account where I can see everything that he has done or supposed to be doing and what his grades are.  He is not overly thrilled that I have such access to it but that's what we have to do stay on top him and make sure that he is doing what he needs to do.  I have asked him to redo some of the work that really is not up to the standard that it should be for him.  He really really does not like that at all.  We just decided that based on his previous actions that we could not wait for him to not graduate high school as the natural consequence of his behavior. The only really hard thing has been the week that we had to take him and Connor in almost every day for Proficiency testing.  These tests have to be taken and passed in order for anyone in Nevada to graduate from high school.  We pulled Connor the second week of February after a really really bad incident at the school and were able to get him into Beacon.  We have to acknowledge the hand of The Lord in all of this.  If Caleb wouldn't have been doing so poorly in school and we hadn't made the decision to pull him from the high school and enroll him into Beacon we more than likely would not have been able to get Connor in because they had closed their enrollment for the semester.  I still had to plead with the principal and have a special meeting with the school to get him in but we were so grateful that we were able to get him in.  Caleb had to go in 3 days and Connor had to go in 4 days that week of proficiency testing.  That was kind of a pain but we did it.  They could only take the tests in Vegas at the school so we did what we had to do.  Connor has taken the tests 2 times already but has not passed them yet.  He has 4 more tries though after this one.  The school offered some testing boot camps that were held the weeks prior to the testing.  We took them in a few extra times for those in the hope that it would help them both do well.  Connor actually has enough credits to be designated as a senior but we needed him to be a junior so that he has as many chances as possible to take the proficiency tests.   We are very pleased with the school so far and the boys are not giving us too much trouble about it.  Connor gets a little antsy especially toward the end of the week but he usually sits down most mornings and gets busy so that he can be done by 11:30 or 12.  They are still in seminary too.  Caleb goes every other day at 7:15am and I pick him up when I take Cayden to school at 8:30. Connor goes on that same day just at 11:30.  Caleb is still involved in theater and so he has theater class at that same time Connor has seminary. It does mean multiple trips up and back from the high school but we do what we have to do.  I'm grateful to have the gift of they Holy Ghost in my life especially to help me with knowing what to do for our kids.