How it all started…
Several years ago, I was eating lunch with a teammate at a restaurant in Austin, Texas. Our waitress picked up that we were from somewhere else and asked what brought us to the area. We told her we were from Florida and visiting because of work.
“Oh, really?” she asked, “What do you do?”
“We build schools.” I answered.
It seemed like a simplistic answer at the time, but I came to love that description of the work I did with our team. Whether we were starting a school from scratch or trying to help a struggling school grow in enrollment or expanding the staff at a rapidly growing school, the explanation fit the work we did. We built schools, externally and internally.
Over the last ten years, I’ve been involved in just about every facet of school building in my past role as Vice President of Growth and Marketing for Divine Savior Ministries and my current role as a consultant. From fundraising to construction planning, marketing to culture building, leadership training to school mergers, curriculum development to retention efforts, I’ve gotten both a 20,000 foot view and in-the-weeds experience of school building. And a long time ago, I taught 3rd and 4th grade. My college degree is in education.
I’ve met lots of fellow school builders along the way: pastors, principals, board members, stakeholders, donors, church presidents, early childhood directors, and large crews of passionate parents building beautiful places for their children to grow and learn. It takes a crew to build a school, that’s for sure.
Over the years and in meeting all these people, I’ve observed an increasing need within our school system: many school builders want and need help building their schools.
Although many school ministries have excellent teachers, accredited programs, and supportive parents, they are struggling to thrive or struggling to survive. And they are scratching their heads as to the reasons why.
While some schools are struggling to grow, others are struggling to achieve stability. Upside-down budgets, leadership vacancies, lack of strategic plans, and team disunity threaten their existence from year to year. With such shaky foundations, growth is nearly impossible to achieve (even though it feels like the easiest answer to budgetary issues).
I’m far from alone in my endeavor to help schools. There are many fellow consultants and organizations who offer answers to both growth and stability issues. I’m greatly encouraged by their presence, and I’ve been privileged to work alongside of them as teammates, all working to help school ministries share the Gospel with more students and their families. By God’s grace, strides have been made. Enrollments grow. Building projects move forward. Programs improve. Educational teams unify and leaders emerge.
However, I am troubled by the continued presence of struggling schools and notice at least three reasons why:
Schools aren’t aware of the available resources or partners that exist to help ministries meet their needs and/or address their concerns.
Ministries are confused by the resources available. When presented with the menu of options or proposals by consultants, they aren’t sure which resource will improve their unique situation. In short, they are not sure where to begin.
Whereas our schools use the accreditation process as a blueprint for a strong academic program, there is no blueprint to guide schools (boards, leaders, faculty) as they seek to build strong organizations to support their educational and ministry programs.
Blueprint Schools was created to answer these three needs so that our wonderful faith-based schools can move from good to great, from surviving to thriving. I couldn’t be more excited to get going.
Let’s build thriving schools.,
Dana M. Kirchoff, Founder
Blueprint Schools
October 2022
