Colleen Hroncich
Every once in a while, I talk to someone who is doing so many amazing things that it’s hard to know where to start. Kansas mom Dalena Wallace is a perfect example. Like many education entrepreneurs, she started out homeschooling her own children. Her journey has included starting a microschool, a homeschool co-op, a network of school founders in her local community, and AIM Educational Collaborative LLC to support founders in similar situations.
A future Friday Feature blog will delve more deeply into Dalena’s tremendous work mentioned above. But her newest project is so unique that I wanted to cover it first. The Heartland Education Reformation Organization (HERO) connects Kansas churches and faith-based educators who want to start or support what she calls Creative Christian Learning Environments (CCLEs).
Dalena started HERO after realizing that many of the school founders she met—locally in Wichita and around the country—were Christians who were starting schools because they felt called by God and were mission-driven. Like her, many of the founders were homeschool moms. But a lot were former public school teachers who took the risk of quitting their jobs and giving up a steady income to serve their communities.
While Dalena appreciates them viewing their efforts as a ministry, as she does with her own work, she wondered, “What about your church? Your local church or your pastor? Does your own congregation support this?” Many of them told her they don’t talk about it in their congregations because they don’t want to cause trouble with members who are really invested in or teach in the public schools.
“What I can do to support them is to help rally the Church and the body of Christ,” Dalena realized, so she launched HERO. “I’m targeting the Church and asking the Church to get on board with this and support those who are out there doing the work. These school founders who are teaching and sacrificing their steady income and they’re just doing this work as missionaries out there. Now I’m asking the Church to support them.”
Through HERO, churches can support Christian education in one of three ways. First, they can host a school or start a school of their own. “We all know there’s a church on every corner, and they’re just sitting there empty Monday through Friday. So they might as well open their doors and let education happen,” explains Dalena. “The second option is that they can sponsor one of the existing schools that are in their community. They can show support by sending volunteers, saying we’re praying for you, donating supplies, things like that. And then the third option is to provide scholarships for students to attend these schools.”
In addition to encouraging churches to support CCLEs and connecting church leaders and potential founders, HERO offers resources to help people start, run, and promote schools. For churches, that includes assistance navigating the legal and regulatory landscape, discounted accounting services, and marketing opportunities. For educators, there is also training, teaching resources, and a community of fellow CCLE founders. The website features a directory of CCLEs in the network, which can help parents who are looking for a Christian education for their children.
“A lot of times when you talk to people about starting a school, they kind of go over a list of barriers and reasons why it wouldn’t work or what would be difficult about it,” says Dalena. “And I get that. But we’re not going to focus on that because they’re not insurmountable. These are things that you can easily overcome. And so I shine a light on the success stories of churches and schools partnering together, pastors and parents partnering together. And my goal is that it will inspire others—inspire other churches and pastors to do this, and school founders to take that first step.”
To Dalena, these partnerships make perfect sense. “This is what the Church says that they want to do. They want to make disciples, they want to educate and train people in the Lord. What better mission field than K12 education?” she points out. “And they’re really geared towards community service and missions. So it’s just kind of connecting that for them, letting them understand there’s a mission field right here in your own backyard. You guys are missing a prime opportunity for ministry.”
While this is a community service and mission opportunity, hosting CCLEs is also beneficial for churches. For example, one group in the HERO network was looking for a new facility. They found an old country church whose congregants were all elderly. Dalena says they hadn’t had young families and children in the church for decades. The church had a parsonage—which was down a long country road surrounded by acres and a pond—that wasn’t being used. The group approached the church and asked if they could use the parsonage for their school. The congregants welcomed them with open arms and said they’d love to have kids there again. The church had been suffering financially, so the partnership helped them by providing some extra income and by infusing life by having young families on the church grounds throughout the week.
“This is absolutely a grassroots thing. Churches are not usually the ones implementing this. The pastors, the elders, the boards of deacons, and all that. They are not the ones saying, ‘Hey, we see a need, we need to do this.’ What’s happening is that their members and community members and parents and teachers are starting this,” Dalena emphasizes. “I’m just letting them be aware of it and saying, ‘This didn’t start with you. But now’s your chance to get on board and get involved in this because it is from God, and it is important. So jump on that wagon, you know, and let’s go.’”