SchoolBox Gathering Draws Record Number of Christian School Founders to Kansas City
More than 100 Christian school founders and leaders gathered in downtown Kansas City this week for the Herzog Foundation’s third annual SchoolBox Gathering, the largest in the event’s history.
The three-day event took place July 27-29 at Hotel Kansas City. Guided by the theme “Firm Foundation,” attendees connected with like-minded leaders, shared resources, and discussed the challenges involved in launching and leading Christian schools.
“The energy is, I think, unmatched of any event we’ve had,” SchoolBox Director Jonathan Edmondson said. “These are the people we’ve served. Getting to meet them, shake their hands and hear more about their stories in a casual setting is just so much fun.”
Leaders of Christian schools, homeschool groups, learning centers, hybrid schools and microschools traveled from across the country to attend, with the farthest participant traveling more than 1,800 miles from Seattle.
“When I look around the room, I see a bunch of heroes,” SchoolBox Advisor Don Davis told attendees during his keynote address Tuesday.
The gathering combined fellowship with professional development through keynote presentations, breakout sessions, and a question-and-answer panel. Sessions addressed topics including school mission and culture, funding, enrollment, and other common challenges facing Christian education entrepreneurs.
Attendees described the gathering as a source of renewed encouragement and inspiration.
“It’s just an infectious atmosphere of like-minded people, and I’m inspired,” said Paul Thomas, head of school at Salt and Light Academy in Kentucky. “I could have just come and breathed the air of encouragement, and that would have been enough. But big picture, I’ve already been blessed.”
Tavier Parks, principal of Lion’s Light Academy in Texas, compared trying to start a school without support from organizations like the Herzog Foundation to bowling without guardrails, with the ball repeatedly landing in the gutter. SchoolBox resources and training, she said, provide the guidance founders need to move toward their goals.
“When you come here and you know that you are striving to do this Christian education thing with limited resources, this is a huge Godsend,” Parks said. “I love the way God allows us to sit with people at tables and just brings us together.”
Approximately 500 schools have launched with the help of SchoolBox resources, according to Edmondson. About half of this year’s attendees had already opened a school, while the other half were still working toward launching.
Among those in the startup phase was Jonathan Townsend of Oklahoma. Previously an executive director at a public charter school in Tulsa, Townsend said the constraints of public education prevented him from leading the school in the way he believed was best.
“I was really proud of a lot of what was happening, but I wasn’t proud of everything,” Townsend said. “I’ve been drawn recently to Christian education.”
Townsend is now developing a Christian school that he hopes to open within the next year.
“I see it as truly the avenue to get kids where they need to be,” he said. “No matter how hard we try to do it without Jesus, we just really can’t get them there.”
SchoolBox is a free online resource from the Herzog Foundation that equips education entrepreneurs with the training, tools, and support needed to launch and lead Christian schools, microschools and homeschool cooperatives.
To learn more, visit HFSchoolBox.com.
About the Stanley M. Herzog Charitable Foundation
The Stanley M. Herzog Charitable Foundation is a charitable foundation dedicated to catalyzing and accelerating the development of quality Christ-centered K-12 education so that families and cultures flourish.
Learn more at HerzogFoundation.com.