‘A huge Godsend’: Herzog Foundation welcomes largest group to annual SchoolBox Gathering

More than 100 school founders gathered in downtown Kansas City this week for the third annual SchoolBox Gathering, where like-minded leaders came together to connect, share resources and discuss challenges they’re facing.

This year’s gathering – hosted by the Herzog Foundation’s SchoolBox program, which helps people launch Christian schools – took place at Hotel Kansas City from Monday through Wednesday. It followed the theme “Firm Foundation” and drew the largest attendance in the event’s short history.

“The energy is, I think, unmatched of any event we’ve had,” SchoolBox Director Jonathan Edmondson told Heartlander News, which is published by the Herzog Foundation. “These are the people we’ve served. Getting to meet them, shake their hand and hear more about their story in a more casual way, it’s just so fun.” 

Edmondson added that it’s a joy to meet people in person after so many video calls, emails and phone calls.

Leaders of Christian schools, homeschool groups, learning centers, hybrid schools and microschools traveled from across the country to attend the event, with the farthest attendee coming more than 1,800 miles from Seattle.

“When I look around the room, I see a bunch of heroes,” SchoolBox Advisor Don Davis said during his keynote speech Tuesday.

The leaders enjoyed fellowship and professional development through keynotes, breakout sessions and a Q&A panel. Topics such as developing a school’s mission and culture, funding, enrollment and other issues were discussed during the event.

Attendees said the gathering refreshed and encouraged them.

“It’s just an infectious atmosphere of like-minded people and I’m just inspired,” Salt and Light Academy Head of School Paul Thomas of Kentucky said. “I mean, I could have just come and breathed the air of encouragement, that would have been enough. But big picture, I’ve already been blessed.”

Lion’s Light Academy Principal Tavier Parks of Texas likened trying to start a school without help from organizations such as the Herzog Foundation to bowling without guardrails, with the ball repeatedly ending up in the gutter.

But with Herzog Foundation resources and training, she said, you have what you need to guide the ball toward the pins.

“The way the world treats teachers is very lack of respect, especially right now,” Parks added. “So when you come here and you know that you are striving to do this Christian education thing with little resources, this is a huge Godsend. …

“I love the way God allows us to sit with people at tables and different things and just brings us together.”

About 500 schools have launched using SchoolBox resources so far, Edmondson said, and about half of the roughly 100 attendees at the gathering had already started a school.

The other half, however, are still in the process of getting their schools up and running.

Jonathan Townsend, who traveled from Oklahoma, is among those still in the startup phase. Townsend was an executive director at a public charter school in Tulsa, but he said he couldn’t lead the school in the way he wanted because of the constraints and limitations of public education.

“I was really proud of everything that was happening, a lot of what was happening, but I wasn’t proud of everything. … I’ve been drawn here recently to Christian education.”

He’s now developing his own Christian school and, if all goes well, plans to open its doors in about a year.

“I see it as truly the avenue to get kids where they need to be, and I feel like no matter how hard we try to do it without Jesus, we just really can’t get them there.”

To learn more about SchoolBox, visit hfschoolbox.com.