CHESTERTON — The Duneland School Board on Monday upheld the denial of a request for a home-schooler to take a geometry class at the high school. “They’re basically denying my child’s right to an education,” parent Suzi Nurse said, disappointed the School Board would not make an allowance for her home-schooled sophomore daughter to take the class while being home-schooled. She said she had looked at other private schools but they were cost prohibitive. She said she planned to appeal the board’s decision. Nurse said she moved to the area so that her children could attend the Duneland Schools. However, after her daughter’s first semester at the high school, she said she noticed problems. “I was losing my daughter,” she said, to the “wrong crowd.” Her daughter would come home crying. Nurse said she decided to home-school her daughter. She said her daughter was doing well but, in order to teach her geometry, she would need some help. “I’m not a math teacher,” Nurse said, and School Superintendent Dirk Baer and board members agreed that that would be a daunting task they wouldn’t want to undertake. However, Baer said, they could not make exceptions to a school policy that prohibits home-schooled students from taking classes or participating in co-curricular activities because it would set a precedent. “If we allow this then we would have to allow every request,” he said. He said it’s been five or six years since there was an exception to the rule, since legislation changed that used to pay for the entire day salary for a teacher of a home-schooler taking a class. Baer said staffing is an issue, especially since the state only reimburses the school for the class hour the home-schooler would take. He added they are not able to hire staff to teach just one period out of the day if more home-schooled students wanted to do the same. Assistant Superintendent Monte Moffett added it was speculation which public school classes would benefit a student, whether geometry, science or other. “I believe a student would benefit from taking other courses at the (public) school as well,” he said. Board President Mike Griffin said the issue could lead to “smorgasbord” class selection, of choosing which class or teacher be assigned to a student. “It becomes an administration and board nightmare,” he said, adding he did not switch his own son out of a class when his wife requested it. ...