The Benefits of Choice in Charter School Programs: Real Sage Oak Parent Testimonials

The episode features two guests, Nancy Shaputis (Virtual Learning Academy) and Alexis Baxley (Personalized Learning Academy), who share their personal experiences of enrolling and educating their children using Sage Oak's unique independent study learning program. They highlight the benefits of personalized learning, teaching children in a safe environment, the flexibility and adaptability of the program, and the invaluable support system that Sage Oak provides. Both guests emphasize how the program fosters not just academic growth, but also the emotional, social, and personal maturity of the children, while enabling parents to engage deeply in their children’s education and development.  In the first half of the podcast, Nancy shares her enrollment experience in the Virtual Learning Academy (VLA).  In the second half of the episode, Alexis shares her enrollment experience in the Personalized Learning Academy (PLA). 
00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction

02:14 Nancy's Journey to Sage Oak (VLA)
05:40 Transition to Virtual Learning Academy
07:02 Benefits of the Virtual Learning Academy
09:59 Social Connections in a Virtual Environment
11:47 Experiences with Field Trips and Social Events
11:47 Advice for Parents Considering Virtual Learning
13:50 Gratitude and Farewell to Previous Guest

14:30 Alexis' Experience with Sage Oak (PLA) 
14:45 Guest's Background and Initial Interest in Sage Oak
15:26 Challenges and Concerns in Choosing a School
16:58 The Decision to Choose Sage Oak
17:59 The Benefits of Independent Study
18:31 The Importance of Flexibility and Support
18:41 Experiences with Sage Oak Teachers
18:59 The Ability to Pivot and Personalize Learning
20:27 Taking Advantage of Sage Oak's Offerings
22:07 Advice for Parents Considering Sage Oak
23:59 A Day in the Life of a Sage Oak Parent
26:37 The Value of Family Learning and Bonding
28:15 Final Thoughts and Encouragement for Prospective Parents
29:30 Closing Remarks and Farewell to Guest

For more information, visit the Sage Oak website at www.sageoak.education.

Thank you for listening to the Sage Studio podcast presented by Sage Oak Charter Schools and hosted by Tiffiny Webster, M.A.Ed. We invite you to follow the show and leave your review below. Sage Oak Charter Schools is an independent study nonclassroom based TK-12 personalized learning public charter school serving students in Southern California. Visit sageoak.education for more information.

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Transcript

0:14

Welcome to another episode of Sage Studio. I'm Tiffiny Webster and enrollment season is upon us. So there is no better person to ask about, enrolling in Sage Oak and what it's like to join a charter school than the parents who have enrolled in the programs themselves. And so today I'm so excited to bring to you Nancy Shaputis, who is one of our parents. From the Virtual Learning Academy, VLA program. And she is going to share her story with us. And I think probably put a lot of you at ease. If you're in that enrollment process right now, I'm trying to make good decisions about your family and your future and what program best works for you. So Nancy, I'm going to stop talking and let you introduce yourself. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much. I am very excited to be able to share our journey and just what brought us here and to be able to, like you said, put a bunch of parents at ease. That Sage Oak is really school to enroll in and where you can have community and have the choice to make decisions for your own child. I have two children enrolled in the VLA program at the moment. I have a seventh grader. and a first grader. My seventh grader has been in the VLA since the conception of the Virtual Learning Program. She started in fifth grade and is now in the middle school type of Virtual Learning Program. And my son started kindergarten after seeing that his sister just loved the program. And now he's in first grade and loving it as well. So we really couldn't be happier with the school. Oh, that's so great. I'm so glad to hear that. And how cool that you've been there since the start of the VLA program. And you've watched it grow a little bit and evolve and change over time. And I love that, you know, you thought, Hey, you know what, this is not only good for one, it's good for two, let's get the other one into the VLA program as well. So I'm going to have you walk us back a little bit to, you know what it was like before the VLA program was in existence. Where was your daughter before? Was she in the other Sage Oak program or was she in a brick and mortar neighborhood school? When it was time for her to go to school, we originally went to a private school. We Decided to go private because the public school programs in our community were unfortunately getting a lot of feedback about bullying and about just kids safety. So we didn't want to put our five year old little girl who was just completely innocent and happy with the world into somewhere where it might cause some damage and even just make her not want to go to school. So she was in a private school. She was going from 8 AM to 3 PM. I was volunteering. And it was a lot. I was pregnant with my son. And it just started to become a lot for me to where I thought, you know, there's got to be another choice. So I started speaking to friends and family what are the other choices And I had a friend who I babysat for her and her daughter was also starting school. And she said, you know what, we're just going to. homeschool. So for first grade, I put her in a homeschooling kind of religious background program. What we found in that program was just It was very much monotonous it was cookie cutter you know, you have these books, this curriculum, and this is what you have to follow, here's what she has to do, and very repetitive it was a good start to our journey, but it was just missing the fact that It wasn't adapting to her. She was getting bored. She was getting tired. They didn't have anything that was reaching out parent to parent. Nothing social. So I was having to find a lot of things to do with her by myself. And that's interesting. It was like missing the mark for both her as a student, but for you as a parent too, you weren't getting that, that community and that support that you were looking for as well. So through the wonders of Facebook, I joined a group of moms in my community and of them were saying, you know what, try this charter school, try. Sage Oak. It seems like they do more personalized learning, but you get more social. They actually have things that are more involved with parents and you get a teacher. And so that spoke a lot to me. I reached out and a lot of the things that I was hearing was just like, okay, this is different, but it's good different because You have a teacher who is going to go ahead and go through curriculum with you. They're going to go ahead and check in with you monthly to make sure that your daughter is hitting all of the benchmarks that she should be hitting. And you also get to go ahead and socialize with a group of kiddos. We have, you know, a list of kids who are in your area who would be more than happy to join you. We have field trips available. we were able to through the Personalized Learning, put her in swim classes and dance classes and where she got to meet not only the kids who were in the same school, but also in the same community, different types of backgrounds. So the exposure was much greater than what I could have offered her on my own. So that was how we started with Sage Oak. Then when we heard about the Virtual Learning Program starting, it was Oh, this is the best of both worlds. Now why did the Virtual Learning Academy why did that appeal to you so much? Number one, we're really techie. We love our games. We love computers. We know that obviously that is the future. So it's have to know how to work around a computer, a tablet, a, you know, anything to go ahead and be able to have access to that sort of thing. Secondary was I had a toddler now and my hands were more than full. So it was the fact that she was going to get. a hybrid type program where not only is she in a classroom with the teacher with students her age being able to do group projects, but she's in the safety of our home. She's also if she's needing something. I'm able to be right there. It's not a question of okay when I get home I have to remember to tell mom, it's literally, mom, let's remember this. Okay. And so she gets. Support not only from a teacher, not only from students her age, but from her parents who are right there. So I feel like that's the best thing that we could offer them is a bigger, greater community than any one of us. I loved how you were honest and saying. Hey, you know what? There came a time where the seasons of my life changed and I had a baby and there was other things going on and I couldn't commit to doing the heavy lifting of all of the instruction. And I needed to know that I could count on a certificated, qualified teacher to do that, but I still wanted to be in the picture, right? I wanted to have her home with me. I wanted to be in the background. I wanted to be there to support her. So having her attend the program where she could go to those live online classes. a couple days a week and take that pressure off because you weren't the main teacher was really what appealed to you about VLA. So I think a lot of parents can relate to that. And I think that's the scary part, right? Like you think, okay, everything's going to fall on me. And I don't remember Math as well as I used to. And I don't know, you know, certain punctuation things or certain English terms. And the fact that You get a teacher who goes ahead and takes care of that part for you, but you still get to proofread your kids essays. You still get to see the growth in them. You still get to give them that support of, okay it seems like they need a little bit more help. So let's reach out to your teacher and see what other things you could be doing to help support you. I think that's really what makes sure that. No, no kid in the program is going to be left behind. Because although it's still virtual learning and it's a classroom setting, it's still very personal. It's still very much. manageable for the teachers to be able to say, you know what, Haley needs a little bit of extra work on this. And having that extra teacher just gives the peace of mind of, okay, it's not just my eyes. It's actually someone who has been trained and they are just wonderful. I, Seeing them being able to manage a classroom and the love and the care that the teachers really provide is just amazing. And I honestly, the one thing that I also talk about is our school counselors. One of the greatest programs that we did with the counselors was their grief counseling session. And we had just recently gone through losing a couple of really big key people in our lives. And it just seemed to work right on time, right on schedule to where my daughter was teaching me how to be more emotionally intelligent, how to go ahead and work through certain processes. So it's really a school that doesn't just focus on, okay, the academic success of a child. It focuses on their emotional intelligence to be able to have children be ready to be adults in the world to be able to be productive and healthy and happy in all ranges of their life. I love the fact that she makes friendships I talk about that very big with her because she's in middle school So how do you see your middle schooler making friends in a virtual program? How does that even work? So the good thing that the teachers have access to is they set the kids up in different groups at times of class. Like even my first grader has certain moments where his teacher will go ahead and set him up with a partner. And so they are literally in a, in their Zoom, in the classroom setting, and then she sets them out into what they call breakout rooms. And so then it's just one kid with another kid, and they just get to go ahead and meet, and greet, and talk, and learn together. They make real lasting connections based on what they really are looking for. It's not I see you every day and I sit next to you every day. So we might as well get along. It's something that literally she has formed from friendships with girls and boys who different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different communities. Some of them live about an hour away, but As parents, we make time to go ahead and join together. She gets them to come to her birthday parties. They go to their birthday parties. They make friendship bracelets. They are writing letters. It's actually using pens and pencils and it's just great to see that like she goes to the store and she thinks, you know, there's a friendship bracelet. I want to take this and mail it to my friends. So we're able to still bring back the things that make a good community and connection even through all of the virtual aspect of it. And it's just it's been amazing how just naturally it flows through the program. So if there was a parent who was still on the fence and not quite sure if a VLA program would be the right fit for them, what's the one piece of advice you'd give that parent? I would say just go with your instinct. I think a lot of the times what happens is we're scared that people will go ahead and see us as, overprotective or see us as someone who is choosing outside of the traditional norm. I would say if you're already aiming towards having your child doing something more personalized, doing something where you are able to keep them close to you. I like to say that I'm preserving my kid's childhood as much as I can. Because right now, you know, you, safety is a concern. And that's physical safety, online safety, emotional safety. If you're thinking about it. I'd say go ahead and take the plunge. You can, after about two months, you will be able to see the difference in your child. Not only in the fact that they are engaged in class, they really enjoy the things that are being presented to them. But also, you get to have the peace of mind of they're right around the corner. You get a computer, you get everything that you need and you get people to go ahead and help you every step of the way. You're not alone in this venture. You're have more than enough resources. To help you. And our principal is amazing in engaging with every one of us. The way that they communicate is amazing. I've never had an issue where I have reached out to a teacher, a counselor, our principal, and I haven't heard back in the same day. So it's something that if you're thinking about it, odds are your thoughts are in the right place. I love it. I love it. Nancy, thank you so much for sharing your story with me today. I am just so grateful that you you really did share. Some very meaningful, heartfelt sentiments that I know are going to be very impactful in the the minds and in the hearts and in the decision making of other families that are out there on the fence as well. Just hoping like you to do what's right for them and for their kids. We really appreciate you coming on the podcast today, sharing your story with us. We are so grateful that your family is here at Sage Oak and that these programs are working out well for them, that you've had. Such a great experience in the VLA program. And like you said, it always continues to grow and evolve and get better and better. So the best is yet to come. All right, Nancy. Thank you so much again, and we will talk to you soon. Have a good one. Thank you. welcome to another episode of Sage Studio. I'm Tiffiny Webster. And this morning we have the honor of speaking with one of our parents from our Personalized Learning Program, Alexis. Welcome to the show. Introduce yourself to everybody. Welcome Hi, Tiffiny. Thank you so much. So my name is Alexis Baxley. I have two wonderful children, Harper, who is in fifth grade and Winston, who is in third grade. And I also own my own business as well. So I'm a busy mom, but this to me has always been like kind of a dream to teach my children and be part of their life while they're young and be involved and build those beautiful connections together. So that's kind of how we got interested in the first place in coming to That is so great to hear. And I know a lot of moms can resonate with that, that they want to be involved in their kid's life and which is why they look for an independent study program. Sage Oaks that they can be involved a little bit in the day to day. I want you to kind of back it up for us and talk to us about when you were originally looking for a school for your kids. Did you know right off the bat that you wanted to go into an independent study style program or did you think that you would just kind of fall into the brick and mortar traditional neighborhood school? What were you originally planning? So it's a lot. I remember going back in my mind when my daughter was young and I thought, okay, we're doing kindergarten stuff by ourself. This is so easy. This is fun. And then I thought shoot, first grade's coming. What am I going to do? Where do I need to put her? Where's the best place to put my child? And I know that we all, we struggle with that because. Yeah. You know, and the biggest concern, I'm gonna start with the biggest concern because I know that every parent has this interaction with another parent. And it's always, you know, what about socialization? your kids aren't going to be social. And I always, you know, that's something that I always like to bring up because I don't think that's a fair assessment to make because we get to choose with the freedom we now have with Sage Oak, we get to choose in which places our kids. get to socialize. And I think that's such a beautiful thing that's very missed. So that's part of where my mind was always in the beginning. So I kind of thought I'm going to set aside those ideas and I'm going to go for it. With private schools, that was another something I looked at, and the cost was always kind of a factor, and I don't think we were quite ready for that at such a young age. I thought, I think I'd rather be involved with my kids day to day rather than send them off to school and then figure out what I'm doing at home. With Sage Oak I think the thing I was most excited about was Okay, there's a support system in place and there's someone here to help me. I'm not by myself. And I think another concern is I'm all alone. And what if I don't know what I'm doing, or what if I don't know this or was taught differently, the information that I now have to teach my kids. And I think that. As time grows, you grow and you learn as well with your child. And I just think that Sage Oak did such a wonderful job providing the support system of, okay, we have someone you're going to meet with who's going to help you keep things structured and keep you on your timeline. And for me, that was huge because. I'm very structured. I like a routine. And if someone helps me create something, I can follow that. That was a huge factor for me in how we ended up at Sage Oak. And among other charters, I didn't feel from the friends that I'd spoke to that there was that much support involved. For me, that was kind of like the selling point. I think that's a important distinction to make is that with Sage Oak being an independent study school, like you get to do all of the school at home, right? But that independent study component is that connection with the teacher, the connection to the curriculum, that support, and that guidance to say okay yes, you are doing the instruction at home. but You don't have to come up with everything on your own. We have this credential teacher who's partnering with you, who is going to walk you through. Okay, here's what you need to do. Here's how you need to do it. And what about like when you needed to make adjustments? Did you have a good enough rapport with your teacher that you were able to make adjustments along the way? What's been your experience with that? I've been so blessed, and maybe it's just a Sage Oak thing, but everyone that I've met there has been phenomenal. I've gotten two different TFs from the five years that we've been there, and both have been incredibly supportive and helpful. I mean, I could text them or email them this isn't working, or we need to do this different, or what ideas do you have here? I think the biggest thing, too, that's so impactful, a Sage Oak, is the ability to pivot. As you're going through stuff, you learn your child's way of learning and their styles that are one kid is one way and one kid is totally the opposite. So it's not a one size fits all. And for me, that's another reason why I love independent studies because You are able to cater to the learning style of your child and then there's the support person who's Oh, yeah, we have something that does this game we can play that's this or we have this other resource here that you can log into the online courses. So if you know, if it's like this, Math is different. I'm she's struggling. We're struggling together. Let's talk about a Sage Oak class where she can do one hour a day and have that support where I don't have to teach that part, but she's getting the support and we're on track. I just keep saying again, like the ability to pivot because that's kind of what it's about your brain changes, the child changes they're developing and you need to be able to be like we got to switch this now and they're just so great at doing that. I love that you just normalize that for parents if they're working with their kids, and all of a sudden things start to go off the tracks, or their student isn't grasping the concept, or just needs to be presented with the information in a different way, like you said, they need something more hands on, or they need something online, or they need just another teacher to provide instruction on that. You're not doing it wrong or you don't have to feel like, Oh, this isn't working. No, it's just a pivot. Just give your teacher that phone call, let her know what's going on, let him know what's going on and they can help you too. I love that pivot personalized. And it sounds like you've been able to tap into a wide range of the things that Sage Oak offers, as far as different types of curriculum, or different types of programs, or even, do you take advantage of any of the in person offerings, like the field trips, or socials, or chances to meet up? In person at all. Yes, we try to do as many of those as we can. We're on the Ventura County side of things. I think Simi Valley is one we'll try to get. We've gone to many every social that they've had every year. We go to those the field trips like they did one that was at the farm in Moorpark. We did that. So anytime those are offered, we definitely try to jump on that. And that's kind of fun too. You get to talk to other stage of parents and the kids get to talk to other kids who are doing it the same way. And that's, it's really fun for them and for me. Do you find when you are talking with other parents that you share in a lot of the same experiences? Yes, we do. I love and it's also just fun to see what when you do share like what they did and I a lot of I think the time I had another friend who had her two sons in Sage Oak before me, and I would ask her like, Oh, this is what's happening with us. What did you do? And she goes, Oh, yeah, you know, we did this or make sure you talk to your TF about that. And it was just another great kind of way to communicate and help each other. It was really great. I love that. Okay you know, during this time when parents are looking to enroll their students for the next school year, and they're looking into different options like you did, they're looking into private school because they like the small environment, but they don't always love the cost that's associated with that. They like something that's close to the neighborhood so that their Around their neighborhood friends, but they're also looking for something a little bit more personalized where they can play a bigger role in their child's education. What advice would you give to parents who were in that place and they were trying to decide what type of program was best for their kids? How can they figure that out? It's a lot. And I think in the beginning, I think you kind of have to go with your gut on knowing your children and knowing how they learn their learning styles and what you want out of it. So a lot of parents, another comment I get is, Oh, I could never do that. I could never do that. I'm like, you could do that, but you choose not to do that. And, or maybe it's difficult with their schedule and their work schedule. And I understand that too. That's not, it's not necessarily for everyone, but it is a mindset. And I think if you are going to put your children in independent studies. It's something you need to understand that this is a, it's a relationship with both of you how do I want this child to grow and be and who are they going to grow into because of what I'm helping them achieve or what we're learning together. And you end up learning a lot about yourself as well through the process. And that growth has been invaluable for myself. Because They teach you so much while you're teaching them as well. And the autonomy and the flexibility that, and the freedom that independent studies provides is kind of amazing. And it's teaching them at a really young age that, Hey, my workload for the day. If I get this stuff done before the lunch hour, I can have a lot more free time where I can go read that book series that I would really want to get started on. And I don't have to just follow a bell schedule because everyone else has to, I understand how that works for a large group, but when you're alone, They're understanding like, wow, if I do this now this is on me. I can finish and do other things that I really wanna do.. And I think that's not necessarily something that young kids learn at a young age unless they're in sports. But there's just not a, if you're not on your own in this way, that the ability to control that is limited. There's, the school is more like, okay, we're gonna follow the school routine and do what they tell us to do. This is really cool to teach them autonomy at such a young age. For sure. I think another question parents might have would be like, okay, Alexis, what does this look like as a day in your life? Like you're managing multiple kids, you're trying to work with them. It sounds like in different ways that are flexible for what each of them need. You are kind of giving those incentives about you know, how you can prioritize getting your work done so that maybe you can move on to other things that you're more passionate about. It's what does it look like to you? Do you follow a regular routine every day? Is every day different? How does it go? So we create a weekly schedule for each child and I pin it up on their door so that they wake up, they can see exactly what they're doing as long as they know what day it is. And sometimes that's funny, what day is it? But the cool thing is, so now I have it down to a science after five years now, it's okay here's everything we're going to get through in the day. We're going to spread it out over these days. And here's what you need to do. And certain things like Math and Science and our Social Science, we all do those things, most of those things together. Aside from Math, actually. Math, we have two different grades. But some of the stuff, we'll play games together. And so we'll turn that into something we do before the lunch break. But what I have found is, it can be very overwhelming if you're not organized. Once you understand what curriculum you're gonna do for each child, I definitely use the pacer. There's like a chart in the beginning of the book and it will kind of tell you like, here's what, how you would pace this out. So I have it scheduled and they can look at that day and say, okay, I have to do these subjects, these page numbers. And then when I'm finished with that, then I get to do these things, which could be a book or draw a picture or whatever it is they're working on. That's outside of. Just those the book work and that's to work really well for them. It's just a matter of understanding again What works filling in those blanks. One kid might be playing a Math game while the other kid is doing a Math book and then they'll switch things like that But I think as long as you have it organized in a way where you can all see it. It's pretty easy to follow that routine. Yeah I could see that. I could see how it's really nice to have a certain set schedule, but then you also have a little bit of flexibility. Because I'm sure those moments come up at the table where all of a sudden it's like you thought you would only spend 20 minutes on a Math lesson, but you found out you had to do some, re teaching of some other skills first and all of a sudden you're in there for 45 and you don't want to have to throw your whole entire day out the window as a result of that, right? So true. And that can happen. And so I feel like having that structure at least is okay I know when I finished this, I just have this left or we can, some of the books too. It's okay, we have more wiggle room on this subject. So let's move this one to tomorrow. And let's just worry about this part today. So you can get to one of those activities that you're looking forward to. Yeah, something else you mentioned that I think is really good too is the fact that as a family, you can work on things together. There might be concepts in Science or concepts in Social Studies where you can work on that together as a family, but then maybe you just differentiate out the assignment or work based on the grade level of the student. Do you find yourself doing that often? Oh my gosh. Yes. So many different exciting things we have done that way. So we got obsessed with here. I'm obsessed with Harry Potter myself recently. We went through the whole series and my gosh, that's a lot. I found this resource where I could download some comprehension. So after each week, after we do a read aloud together, that was, they would look forward to it was like, can we read? Can we read? And I'm like, okay, we'll get to it. And then at the end of the week, they would do like a little mini test on those chapters that we covered to be like, where are we? And they could help each other. They could work as a team. And I feel like from third grade to fifth grade. That's very cool. They can bridge that gap together because they're reading the same book and she could help explain things to him. And it was kind of fun for me to step back and let them like teach each other and interact. That was really cool. And then we also did an escape room for, I want to say it was not good. That was maybe a year or two ago for a history lesson that they did together. And that was like the most fun they've ever had. And I think they spent two hours because it was so much fun. That is so great. And you know, those are lifetime memories. I've just like time together with family let alone, you know, learning the academic side of it, that bonding time that they have with siblings and with you and just being comfortable in their own homes. That's really cool. That's will last a lifetime. I'm sure. Yes, I think so too. It was fun. So good. I appreciate you sharing your story with us so much today. I know that other parents that are out there that are just wondering do I have what it takes? I mean, it sounds like you don't have to have it all figured out at first that you can kind of evolve as you go. Would you say that's true? A hundred percent. And I would also say to rely on the fact that Sage Oak is there to help you in so many ways. It's not just the curriculum. I think that's another saying that maybe people who haven't had enough experience with Sage Oak. I mean, there is so much support. There are online classes that if you're struggling or your child is struggling in a subject and you finally, you realize that by there, by getting there, you're like, oh my gosh, this isn't working here. I don't want to hold them back because I'm not teaching it right. You have these resources. They are available to you. They can log into a class with a teacher in front of them and actually pick up where you've left off and get that support that's needed and I think for me that was so impactful because you just don't know when that is going to happen. And so to know that's there. You're not left hanging on your own. It's really. An incredible school and support system that I'm just very happy that I went with it. And I would really encourage any parent who's looking for that building that relationship with their child, it's so worth taking the risk. It's really worth it. Love it. All right. For those of you that are listening that want a little bit more information about enrollment in Sage Oak, you can always check out www. sageoak. education for all the latest updates on any upcoming webinar or resources or contact information to get more information about enrolling in the program. All right, Alexis, thank you so much for joining us today. Again, we really appreciate your sharing your story here on the Sage Studio I appreciate being able to share it. Always. All right. We'll see you on the next one.