State Center is know for its renown Rose Festival, historic Watson Grocery Store, and a revitalized, vibrant Main Street.

But now, seven committed area families will be hoping it soon will be recognized for a unique home-school cooperative.

Classes at ACRE Agriculture Education Center start this fall, said Shannon Eldridge and Brad Pfantz, both of State Center, and active in forming the cooperative.

ACRE is an acronym for Ag Curriculum in a Rural Environment.

A fitting name in an area where agriculture is king, and on hot July days, miles and miles of corn stalks and soybeans can be seen reaching for the sky, as livestock graze to their heart’s content.

“A home-school cooperative is a group of like-minded home-schoolers collectively providing resources resulting in a greater educational benefit to the participating families and students, versus those achieved as a single family unit or individual student,” according to material prepared by Eldridge and Pfantz.

Instruction will include an intensive phonics approach for language arts and use traditional mathematics.

Importantly, “it will be a Christian-based, but non-denominational,” said Eldridge.

To emphasize that point, Eldridge remarked in a light-hearted manner she is Lutheran.

Conversely, Pfantz said he is Roman Catholic.

Classes will be taught from a Biblical world view and science subjects will be creationism-based.

A tutor has been hired to facilitate daily instruction, but Eldridge and Pfantz emphasized parents will be in classrooms on a daily basis, assisting with instruction, projects and other duties.

The cooperative’s initial demographic is 5-8 year-olds, or traditional kindergarten through second grade.

Central to the cooperative effort was parents wanted to take ownership of, and direct learning. They felt as parents, they are ultimately responsible for their children and their education.

Additionally, Eldridge and Pfantz said since State Center is a agriculture community, there is a prime opportunity to use livestock and horticulture projects to substantiate and reinforce classroom curricula to further develop real-world, life skills. These agriculture projects will provide academic benefit, but will also be used to teach children about production agriculture, business, and responsibility.

As a home-school cooperative, it will have the flexibility to ability-group children based on educational aptitude rather than strictly by age, as is done in traditional classroom settings. In doing this the cooperative can encourage students to maximize their full potential and not be “boxed in” by a certain grade level.

As a cooperative, all parents have an expected level of responsibility and contributions.

ACRE was formally established in May.

But research and due diligence started several years ago.

Eldridge and Pfantz said members had discussions with other parents, public school educators, private parochial school educators, and parents in other home-school cooperatives. A Walton, Kansas school was visited.

“It is a public charter school that uses agriculture hands-on projects to reinforce classroom curricula – not because they wanted to create “farmers”, but rather, they (and we) believe we should actively use the amazing resources we have right in our community to enhance classroom learning and teach responsibility.”

Cooperative members have continued to consult with private parochial schools and multiple current and former home-schooling parents as opening day nears.

Eldridge and Pfantz stressed ACRE is not a school in the traditional sense and does not receive any public funding; it is self-funded by the parents of the children participating. Iowa currently does not have a voucher system or Educational Savings Account option, so the parents involved are fully funding their children’s education. For more information, contact Pfantz at brad@jpins.net.