The Crossway Foundation Board Meeting Minutes: 6/2/25

Members present:
Lori Keller
Becca Dillard
Shelley Dean
Charity Karwowski
Evie Berry
Oscar Barzuna
Laura Martin
Payton Landy
Beth Phillips

The group introduced themselves to each other. New board members Oscar Barzuna and
Payton Landy are present for the meeting today.

PSO Update:
Laura Martin attended the meeting as a representative of the PSO. She spoke about
restructuring the PSO (Parent Support Organization) this year. Laura has been a member of the
PSO since 2021.
Shelley shared information about the last PSO meeting. The PSO has had questions about
their role in fundraising and how the PSO and Foundation should communicate. Shelley
discussed possibly having a town hall meeting including the PSO, teachers and therapists from
Crossway.
Laura reported that the PSO has created an email account that will be easily recognizable to
families, and PSO leadership will have access to this email. The PSO has also created a Go
Fund Me account, which raised funds for the staff appreciation week. The PSO will continue
this Go Fund Me account and will list specific fundraising campaigns (mulch for playground,
shade structure for playground, etc). Dave Kluesner is PSO treasurer and is currently handling
the finances for the PSO. These Go Fund Me donations are not listed as tax deductible
donations.
Laura also reported that Trader Joe’s will donate items, but they require a request letter
including the Foundation’s tax ID#. Evie shared that Panera is also a good organization to
donate food items, since they often have extra items.
Evie suggested creating a one page document to summarize the purposes of the PSO and
Foundation. Both groups have a similar mission and will have some overlapping goals. The
PSO is working bottom up on local initiatives including support for Crossway teachers and
students/ families, and the Foundation is working more top down on larger/ macro initiatives,
such as raising money for scholarships and larger initiatives like the 100 Gardens Project and a
minibus for student field trips.

​Scholarship / loan discussion:
The group voted to give a $500 scholarship to Zara Mitchell. This leaves us with $1500 in
budgeted scholarship funds remaining. Zara’s family has also requested $5300 as a loan.

The group discussed how to handle loans. We discussed holding off on approving any loans
until Evie has time to review our finances in more detail. We need to determine if there is a
minimum balance required for the foundation account. Evie will work on verifying our account
balance, Square balance, and any minimum balance required in our account.
Shelley shared that we need to develop an annual report before speaking to larger
stakeholders. Evie has spreadsheets from our former treasurer Brian that could be compiled
into an annual report.

100 Gardens Project:
Lori shared some information about the 100 Gardens project, which is an aquaponics learning
lab that helps teach life skills to students. We have raised approx. $7000/$10,000 needed for
this project. The organization is allowing us to house one of their systems (worth $16,000),
which decreases our expenses. We are raising money for the staff training. The program helps
the students learn about life cycles and how to be environmental stewards. Eventually we want
to have a farmers market. We would like to train the teachers this summer and start the garden,
so the seeds are starting to sprout for the kids in the fall.
Charity asked if the 100 Gardens organization could provide a small demo of their garden at
the fundraiser on Sunday. This may help raise money for this cause at the fundraiser.
Evie asked if the 100 Gardens organization could provide a video to share as part of our
fundraising efforts.

Marketing discussion:
Approx 70% of Crossway students receive grant funding (Opportunity Scholarship Program,
ESA+ Program). There are also some scholarships available through local organizations such
as Channing’s Joy Foundation, Unlocked.
Figu asked if Crossway Academy’s financial deficit is due to not having enough children
enrolled, and Shelley agreed with this statement.
Lori said we can currently add 1-2 more students, before needing to add two more teachers.
Current ratio is 1:4 adults to children.
Figu mentioned that we should emphasize that the Crossway Academy program benefits
children so that they may be able to mainstream into other schools.
Lori suggested creating portfolios for the students to show how much they have developed
during their time there.
Evie suggested creating five different profiles/ personas to help advertise the school’s services.
Shelley suggested having parents of children who have previously attended Crossway to give
testimonials.
Figu mentioned appealing to parents of potential students on Instagram, TikTok (maybe
Facebook for 40+). We should consider short reels (30 seconds or less) rather than longer
videos. Every new teacher/ therapist hire is an opportunity to expand our community to that
person’s network.
Crossway Academy gets some referrals from other schools.
We are marketing Crossway Academy, not the Crossway Foundation.

Edge City Brewery Event: Sunday 6/8/25, 1-4 pm:
Sponsors: Channing’s Joy foundation ($1000) and Brighter Strides ABA ($250)
Shelley will try to check in at the brewery later to clarify set up time, food truck location, and if
there is an outlet outside we can use for a TV.
We will have two food trucks - Mecklenburgers and A Pinch of Soul.
Becca has made bingo cards and will print them.
We have a QR code to buy bingo cards at the event. Attendees can also purchase bingo cards
in advance. Bingo cards are $20 each.
We will use markers to mark the bingo cards.
We will play 4 rounds of bingo, 2 winners per round.
Becca will run the bingo game.
We will bring a table with Crossway Academy and Crossway Pediatric Therapy signage.
Lori mentioned having balloons to draw attention at the event (Foundation colors are green and
blue). Beth will get 12 balloons (6 blue, 6 green).
We can laminate 50 Bingo cards so they can be reused, or print 200 bingo cards total.
Figu suggested putting the Crossway Foundation logo in the center of the card rather than a
“free” space.
Please see spreadsheet sent by Lori with bingo/ raffle prizes. Charity has also contacted
Matthews Playhouse.
Taylor McNeill has a small microphone she can let us use for the event.

Event agenda:
Bingo starts at 2 pm and will be every half hour x 4 rounds.
Michelle Pentz’s daughter is doing face painting.
A parent is donating cookies to the event. We can sell the cookies - buyers can be asked to
donate whatever price they would like, rather than selling them for a specific price, in order to
try to get more money donated for the cookies.
Edge City Brewing will play music in the background of the event, so we do not need to
provide any music.
To display sponsors: We can play videos on a TV advertising our sponsors and Crossway
Academy and Crossway Pediatric Therapy.

​The group took a tour of Crossway Academy and Crossway Pediatric Therapy and then
concluded the meeting.

Tentative date for next board meeting: Monday 7/7/25, noon-1 pm

**At this meeting we will need to discuss Lori’s update from her conversation with Dawn
Chanland from Queens University, as well any potential candidates for board president and
vice president.