Berrien Springs Virtual Academy Partnership
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  • Program Basics
  • Registration
  • Classes
    • Virtual Classes >
      • Virtual Class Guidelines
      • The Animation Course:Animation I or II or Drawing I or II
      • Bonus Virtual Classes
      • Michigan Virtual
      • Middlebury World Languages
      • Login Sites
    • Animal Husbandry >
      • Bit By Bit Stables: For the Love of Horses
      • Cedar Lodge Stables
      • Caliridge Farm: Equine Care and Horsemanship
      • Red Bud Gypsies Ranch
      • Circle C Stables
      • Ground Zero: Exploring Equine Education
      • Ground Zero: Mounted Archery
      • Patsy Little: Horse Care and Management
      • Birchbank Farm: Hobby Farm Life
      • Spring Creek Equestrian Center
    • Art Classes >
      • Sketching Class: Greek Architecture
      • Buchanan Art Center
      • Ceramics/Pottery >
        • Ceramics with Jill Dodge
        • Niles STEAM Room: Ceramics
        • Wheel Fun Pottery!
      • Creative Design with Robert Ritzenthaler
      • Collage
      • Design Street in Plainwell
      • Drawing and Painting Classes: see tabs >
        • Art and Creativity
        • Niki McNeil: Art Journaling and Zentangle
        • Calligraphy: Lettering By Hand
        • Elementary Art with Jill Dodge
        • Elements of Design
        • Birchbank Farm: Drawing, Painting or Sculpture
        • JLN Studios: Acrylic, Watercolor and Pastels
        • Jimen Yoon and Harry Ahn: Drawing and Watercolors
      • Jewelry /Beadwork >
        • Beadwork: with Kim Bollman
        • Jewelry with Kim Bollman
      • FLC: Art and Culture Around the World
      • Ground Zero: Archery Art
      • GVNCP: Nature and Community Arts
      • Krasl Art Center
      • Photography and Videography >
        • Adventures in Photography with Katie
      • Glass >
        • Jill Dodge: Glass Fusing and Glassics Fusion
        • Stained Glass: Stevensville: Heidi Martin
      • Water Street Glassworks >
        • Water Street Glassworks
    • Business and Finance >
      • Spark. Ignite. Launch! Kidpreneur Program
      • Junior Achievement: Biz Town
      • Junior Achievement: Finance Park
    • Chess >
      • Chess: Niles
    • Dance: Fine Arts >
      • Ballroom Dance
      • Bangor and Coloma Dance Studios
      • Benton Harbor Dance Studios
      • Decatur Dance Studios
      • Dowagiac Dance Studios
      • Niles Dance Studios
      • Sawyer Dance Studios
      • South Haven Dance Studios
      • St. Joseph Dance Studios
      • Stevensville Dance Studios
    • CTE: Career and Technical Education
    • Drama >
      • CMW: Children's Music Workshop
    • Family Adventure Trips >
      • Sailing and Exploring the Manitou Passage
      • Straits of Mackinaw
    • Field Trips
    • Foreign Languages >
      • Lotus Chinese Classes
      • Conversational Spanish
      • Conversational Italian
    • Humanities >
      • Communication >
        • Ground Zero: Journalism
      • Historical Arts & Technology >
        • Joel Bennett: Frontier Skills
        • Janine Frizzo - Colonial Studies
        • Jill Dodge: Ancient Secrets of Quillling
      • Re-enactment Arts >
        • Ground Zero: Archery
        • Blacksmithing: Ted Guimond
        • Historic Dance
    • Life Skills >
      • Cooking >
        • Birchbank Farm: Cooking
        • Ground Zero: Spanish Cooking
        • Joel Bennett: Beginning Baking and Frontier Foods
      • Crochet: with Niki McNeil
      • Jill Dodge: Leather Tooling
      • Sewing and Textiles >
        • Sewing or Quilting: Doreen Cox
        • Robin English: Sewing and Quilting
        • Jackie Ransom: Sewing with Jackie Ransom
        • Birchbank Farm: Sewing
    • Music >
      • Music Lessons: Independent Music Study >
        • Voice
        • Piano
        • Violin
        • Cello
        • Guitar
        • Percussion
        • Other Instruments
      • Music Lessons: Group >
        • Be in a Band: Jon Whidden
        • Berrien Springs Public School - Band or Choir
        • Dave Carlock's FRS Program
        • Jazz & Creative Institure - Kalamazoo
        • Citadel : Kindermusik
        • Lake Michigan Youth Orchestra
        • The Music Academies - Niles
        • School of American Music
        • West Michigan Homeschool Fine Arts
        • Shoreline Music Classes
    • Nature/Environment >
      • Birding and Beyond
      • Loonling Learning: Syrup to Cider: Maple Syrup, Gardening and Horticulture
      • Love Creek: Outdoor Explorers
      • GVNCP: Community & Landscape Workshop
      • GVNCP: Habitats And Wildlife
      • GVNCP: Phone Apps Nature
      • GVNCP: Wilderness and Culture 2
    • Physical Education >
      • Gymnastics >
        • Elite Sports Academy
        • Infinite Gymnastics at Andrews
        • Kids' Gym: Portage
        • Power In Motion
        • The Club for Gymnastics
        • YMCA gymnastics
      • Martial Arts
      • Physical Fitness & Sports >
        • Basketball >
          • Basketball: Andrews Jr. Cardinals
          • Basketball: Niles with Dan Oates
          • Basketball: YMCA
        • CrossFit Locations
        • Ground Zero: Fitness In Archery
        • Hockey: Youth League
        • Ice Skating: Learn to Skate: Garden Ice Arena
        • Physical Fitness Classes at the BH/SJ YMCA
        • Physical Fitness Classes at the Niles-Buchanan YMCA
        • Softball: Dugout Dolls
        • Tennis: Group Lessons
        • Volleyball >
          • Ground Zero Volleyball
          • Volleyball: Performance One
      • Swim and Gym Locations
      • Swim Lessons/Swim Teams >
        • Group Swim Lessons: various locations
        • Swim Clubs
    • Technology >
      • EEME: Electronics Kits
      • FLC Tech Classes
      • Hip Hop Studio and Electronic Music
      • Niles STEAM Room
      • Photography or Videography with Robert Ritzenthaler
      • Recording Studio
      • Robotics: FRC Robotics
      • Self-A-STEAM Robotics, Engineering, and Coding
    • Vocational Education >
      • Auto Mechanics
      • Blacksmithing: Ted Guimond
      • Birchbank Farm: Alterations and Tailoring
      • Birchbank Farm: Commercial Cooking
      • Ground Zero - Know Your Bow
      • Woodworking with Tom Hurst
      • L'earn a Bike
      • Lifeguarding Certification and Junior Lifeguarding
  • Dual Enrollment / CTE
    • What is Dual Enrollment?
    • Andrews University
    • Glen Oaks Community College
    • KVCC - Kalamazoo Valley Community College
    • Lake Michigan College
    • Southwest Michigan College
    • CTE
  • Meet your Mentor
    • Mentor Bios
    • Mentor Evaluation Tools
  • Contacts / Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Homeschool Links of Interest
    • Social Networking & Homeschool resources
    • Standardized Testing Opportunities
  • Calendar
    ​For more information on our remarkable program, contact the Partnership Director here 
    ​
    (no business solicitation emails please).

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Meet the Staff! 

The Partnership is staffed by former and  actively homeschooling parents.  We are traveling this road with you!  We do not have an office on the school campus, but we do have a mailbox in the Central Office where you may drop off paperwork. 

​What are the Partnership office hours?

Partnership staff do not have an office on campus, but have an inbox at the Central Office (STEM/Central building) on campus.  Our hours are the same as Central Office, M-F, 8-4:30, following the school calendar.   We are best reached via email and we do our best to return messages in a timely manner. 

The Central Office is staffed and open from approx. 8:00 until 4:30 M-F. 
The BS public school staff is very friendly, but may not always know the daily details of Partnership classes and activities, therefore you must contact us with your questions and concerns.

Visit us on Facebook!  Use the link to receive the invitation: Berrien Partnership Community (homeschool-related and partnership-related news and events):  http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/190326294355471/.
Use this link to request to join the group: Partnership Info Page (partnership info only):  https://www.facebook.com/groups/555552544557198/


Sharon Haynes, Program Director, 
Sharon Haynes has been the Program Director of the Berrien Springs Parent Partnership for the past 8 years and on staff since its inception.  After a career as an Occupational Therapist, she was an active homeschool parent for 9 years and deeply involved in area homeschool networks.  Sharon believes that student-driven experiential learning, utilizing diverse community resources, are key to a relevant, well-rounded education.   If you have questions regarding the program, registration, other programs at BSPS, homeschooling in general, suggestions for improvements or new ideas, please give her a call!                 
269-470-0352                              

shaynes@shamrocks.us     

Tanya Haselhuhn, Administrative Assistant,  is the go-to person for all paperwork questions and submissions for students and teachers.  Submit documents or ask her a question at hspdocuments@shamrocks.us         

Becky Halcombe is a certified teacher who homeschooled for 20 years.  Becky has been with the program for 10 years and is our Field Trip Coordinator a Mentor Teacher and our Testing Coordinator. She is in charge of all of our Field trips and answers questions regarding registration.  If you have questions, she'll be happy to help!
#269-277-4699
Field Trips: rhalcombe@shamrocks.us
​
Registration help: hspregistrationhelp@shamrocks.us

Tina Kohler is a homeschool mom of 17 years, has been an active member of the Partnership for 8 years, and is our Virtual Learning Coordinator, expertly navigating our sea of programs and helps manage our website.  She has knowledge about all of our classes, from technical issues to passwords.  She can answer just about anything virtual, and keeps track of students' progress/hours in each class.  She'll be glad to help any way she can! 
The best way to contact her is via email: hspvirtuals@shamrocks.us

Amy Scott is a homeschool mom, certified teacher, and our Project Based Learning Coordinator.  

Rachel Halcombe, Administrative Assistant. Handles the invoicing and paperwork for all community resource classes except music and martial arts. Ask a question or submit documents at rhalcombe1@homeoftheshamrocks.org.



Where is Berrien Springs School campus located?

All of the school buildings are on one campus, conveniently located in downtown Berrien Springs, very close to the west entrance to the Fairgrounds.
Physical Address/ Mailing address: 285 Sylvester Ave., P.O. Box 130  Berrien Springs, MI  49103

From the light in town at Speedway heading west, go a few blocks until the road continues straight as Snow or goes to the right as Shawnee.  Take Shawnee, then an immediate right onto Sylvester at the blue Gateway building.  The Middle School and Virtual Academy are on the first drive to the left, as indicated by the sign. 
OR
From old 31, heading south past Andrews University and Apple Valley Market, you could go all the way to the light at the corner of 31 and Ferry, or you could turn right onto Hamilton, just after McDonalds and just before the Community Library.  Follow Hamilton until it reaches a dead-end at Sylvester Rd (and school).  Follow Sylvester Ave. past the High School, and the Middle School and Virtual Academy will be the road on your right, as indicated  by the sign.