Change With It
Hybrid Schooling in Oregon
Guest post by Becky Abrams Wilmoth
“Education is changing with or without us. We have to change with it.”
-Josh Walker
I had the pleasure of talking with Josh Walker last week. Josh is the recently appointed Head of Schools at New Hope Christian School in Grants Pass, OR–about thirty minutes from my hometown. He is a pastor and former public school teacher. He and his family moved to Grants Pass a few years ago, where he took a job as a local pastor. The change in vocation came with a significant pay-cut and his wife–who had homeschooled up to that point–needed to go back to work to help make ends meet. She ended up teaching at a local Christian school–New Hope Christian School–where two of their children were also enrolled as students. The school had a need for a Bible teacher and Josh began teaching Bible the next year. When the current Head of Schools retired in 2025, Josh applied and was brought on to be the new Head of Schools starting with the 2026 school year.
It was not long into his new role that Josh began researching ways to meet the growing needs of local students and families. “I believe homeschooling is a viable educational option,” he said, and he shared about his desire to find a way to make homeschooling in high school more accessible for parents who often feel overwhelmed with the increased academics and challenges of homeschooling in high school. New Hope has a room that is currently used only as a conference room and Josh quickly began to brainstorm ideas on how New Hope could partner with homeschoolers in this space.
Josh quickly discovered that he was not the only one to consider innovative options and was able to connect with Horizon Christian School in Hood River, OR to learn from them about the hybrid option they offer. Horizon has been operating a hybrid extension of their school for six years for grades two through twelve. They were gracious and offered extensive help and resources to Josh as he came up with an implementation plan at New Hope.
When Josh presented his hybrid high school idea to the New Hope board of directors, they were supportive and excited at the idea (a huge win!). New Hope opened enrollment for their new Hybrid program just weeks ago and hopes to enroll up to 20 students for the first year.
It was a joy to hear Josh’s heart to meet students and families where they are at and to work to expand creative educational options. I had a number of specific questions for Josh about barriers and he had some great answers! I’ve listed a summary of those questions below:
What will your hybrid program look like in comparison to your full-time high school program? How much will students intermingle with each other?
All hybrid students will be enrolled in Christian Classroom online with Bob Jones University. New Hope currently uses Bob Jones University (BJU) curriculum in person, so this aligns with their accreditation.
New Hope has an extra room that has been used as a conference room. It will be turned into the hybrid high school room. Hybrid student will spend Wednesday and Thursday on campus. There will be one person to be the guide for all hybrid students grades 9-12. When students arrive on Wednesdays, they will turn in work from the previous week and the guide will prepare checklists for the upcoming week. The hybrid students will attend chapel with the full-time students. There will be a block of time to navigate any challenges in their online courses before lunch on Wednesday, then Wednesday afternoon, they will begin their work on the next week’s assignments. On Thursday, they’ll be mostly in the classroom working on their online work as well.
In order to meet elective requirements, the hybrid students will all do an elective together with the hybrid guide. They will also need to do an elective on their own using an online program (either Greenways or Monarch). New Hope added the cost for any online classes into the monthly tuition so that they can easily use these programs without an additional fee. New Hope’s full-time electives are always at the end of the day. Hybrid students will have the option to come at the end of the day all five days a week in order to participate in full-time, in-person electives including their popular drama program. New Hope offers PE as an elective and students can participate in that and/or they can participate in sports, which counts towards PE credit (with limitations).
New Hope has eight “houses” loosely structured similarly to a college fraternity/sorority: 6th-12th grade students are divided up into the eight houses where they participate in community service activities, competitions and similar events. Hybrid students will be divided between those eight houses as well. New Hope also coordinates quarterly “Kingdom Living Days” (camp clean up, singing at assisted living, etc) and hybrid students will participate in those events as well.
Hybrid students are free to come on off days if there are special events. They can participate in sports and do not foresee an issue with the state Athletic Association (OSAA) because the hybrid students will meet the same grade and class expectations as their full-time students.
Will your hybrid high school students receive an accredited diploma from your school? Did you have to do anything additional with your accreditation agency for this?
New Hope is accredited by Cognia. Josh reached out to his regional rep and explained what they would be doing with the addition of a hybrid high school program. Cognia “gave the go-ahead because they are not really changing what they put their stamp on…the requirements are the same…graduation requirements are the same.” The keys to this being so straightforward was the fact that their hybrid program will use the same curriculum (95%) and hybrid students are enrolled and tracked the same as their full-time students. The delivery is just different.
Did you/the New Hope Board have concerns about the hybrid program creating “competition” for your full-time program?
New Hope’s high school enrollment was declining in recent years. Josh stated that “Covid accelerated the changing education landscape…people want flexibility. We need to either change or we’re going to be left behind. We can and need to meet the need. We will have far more students come to our school, which will offset the loss (if any) from our full-time program and it may bring in full time students eventually. Hood River found that it did shake out for them and it has been a game changer for their school and their families. They had more students move from the hybrid option to the full time option.”
Do you have any advice for other schools considering adding a hybrid option?
“...Definitely consider it–it’s an option–we are going to have to face the changing educational system and have new educational options. We have to have some type of bridge between high school and homeschool lives.”
New Hope’s hybrid tuition includes curriculum and is priced at $250/mo per student, which is a fraction of their full-time tuition of $821 per month.
Thanks so much to Josh Walker for his time sharing this exciting work! May his story continue to inspire others to think outside the box and embrace new innovative options across the nation.