Board of Governors
Dr. Kevin Clark | ESI founder and President
Kevin has more than 20 years of experience in classical Christian education, including classroom teaching, administrative leadership, published work, and leadership in the classical school movement at the national level.
As president he is responsible for school design, vision casting, developing key philanthropic relationships, and establishing a presence in the community. As founding dean of the first campus, he is responsible for cultivating the network brand, overseeing campus operations, recruiting and training faculty, leading parent communication, and developing school culture.
Dr. Brian Polk | Board chairman
Brian has more than 20 years experience in education, including classroom teaching at the collegiate and secondary level and administrative leadership. With an earned doctorate in educational leadership from Vanderbilt’s Peabody School, Brian lends academic integrity and to the board and is an important resource for professional development and administrative leadership.
Throughout Brian’s time in Classical schools, he has learned to value deeply the ends of a Classical Christian Education: the cultivation of wisdom and virtue. Students flourish when these ends are cultivated through the means of healthy school relationships—both students to teachers and teachers to administration. Brian brings this conviction to ESI for providing a meaningful Christian and Classical education to underserved students in the Central Florida area.
rudy reudelhuber | founding Director
Rudy is managing director at Hodges, Ward, Elliot, where he has brokered more than $6B in volume in North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
From being a graduate of Princeton University and Fulbright scholar to professional work in international resort brokerage, finance, and investment banking, Rudy brings a deep appreciation for learning, cross-cultural competence, and extensive professional experience to his service as board chairman. Specifically, he lends the board his expertise in finance, contract negotiation, brand fidelity, and facilities.
Rudy is an ordained deacon of the Orthodox Church in America. In his free time, Rudy loves to swim, play the banjo, and read classics or the early Church Fathers. He and his wife Susan have four sons.
Chrissie schutz | Director
Chrissie Schutz is the operations director for Cities Project Global, an organization that works to mobilize the body of Christ through awakening leaders to live out their God-given design and purpose.
Chrissie and her husband Alan worked at Campus Crusade for Christ for 29 years in senior leadership roles. Chrissie has extensive experience in fund development and event planning. Through her creativity and experience, she has planned a variety of different events for large numbers of guests. She has been instrumental in raising funds needed to further the mission and vision of the organizations she represents.
Chrissie is a former board member of The Geneva School and for Samaritan Village, Inc. She is married and has two grown children that were classically educated. Chrissie enjoys reading, entertaining, and laughing with friends.
Dave McDaniel | Director
Paul Mascia | Director
Sheriffe Oliver | Director
Governance and Administration
Board of Governors
As an independent school network, ESI is governed by a board of dedicated volunteers with the expertise and experience necessary for fulfilling a board’s primary duties—ensuring that the school remains true to its mission and sound in its fiscal responsibilities. It is important to note that the board governs, it does not manage. It does this most importantly by evaluating the one employee it has chosen to accomplish its mission—the president, the executive director of the network.
Campus Deans
Each ESI campus is led by a dean who is responsible for the teaching, learning, discipline, and culture of that location. This supports a consistent culture and ensures that students, as well as their parents, are known and loved. All faculty and staff at the campus report to and are evaluated by the dean. The dean in turn reports to and is evaluated by the president.
Network Administration
The campuses are supported by a centralized network administration that oversees business, operations, and human resources for each of the campuses, as well as academics and engagement. The network administration is led by the president, who as the executive director, is also head of schools.
Partners
THe Drexel Fund
The Drexel Fund is a nonprofit venture philanthropy fund that seeds new school models, scales networks of existing schools with a track record of academic and operational excellence, and strengthens the educational ecosystems needed to create the market conditions necessary for new private schools serving low-income students to thrive.
The Drexel Fund invests in new, financially sustainable schools serving low-income students in any state with publicly funded private school choice. Funding is available to support the development and implementation of multiyear growth plans for new and existing networks of high-performing schools that serve low- and middle-income students, to innovative entrepreneurs planning their school launch through the Fund’s Founders Program, and for start-up grants for brand new, replicable schools.
SPREADING HOPE NETWORK
The Spreading Hope Network understands starting a God-centered school for at risk youth is crazy. In 1999, God used a dear friend and a timely sermon to give Russ Gregg the courage to quit his job and do something crazy: start a school for his neighbors’ children.
Over 20 years, Russ has learned from many people, and through trial and error what it takes to bring a school into existence. The Spreading Hope Network is a group of educational start-up consultants who exist to foster hope in God by kickstarting new God-centered schools for children of the city.