Buildings to meet in

I’ve been setting up and running homeschool groups off and on for many years. Most of these groups have met in libraries, parks, and homes. I’ve been involved in several co-ops, where parents gather and teach classes to each other’s children. Most of these have met in churches, particularly churches with several classrooms and/or a gymnasium. Homeschool has the advantage of meeting during the school day, when the buildings are less busy, when there are fewer children in the parks. Free facilities are a huge benefit. But the majority of churches charge something for consistent use. Many people complain about the cost. A few, the ones coming from private school, are amazed at how cheap it is to join a full-day co-op.

The thing is: we're relying on other people's buildings. The owners are dealing with long-term maintenance, heat, light, AC, roof, plumbing, and often janitors. Currently our groups provide janitor service by having parents clean, but we can only provide limited security by having parents present in the building. Some churches have staff in their offices daily; in that case we have a backup. Other churches are ghostly during the day. If something goes wrong, say, a table breaks, we have to contact them and wait for them to decide. When we meet downtown, we need extra parents because of homeless people wanting to enter the building. We also need parking space; someone has to provide a lot that's paved and preferably lit at night. A generous donor has offered to build a building for our homeschool theater group, but we then need land to put it on, and we will have property taxes and permits and all that to deal with. There's no easy way to do this.