Blog Post #1: Letter From the Founder

Hi! My name is Krystal Zdunkewicz, co-founder of Shiloh Springs Learning Co. I am so excited about our new weekly blog! There is a good chance it won’t always be me writing, but I wanted to take the opportunity to say welcome to this journey God has my husband and me on. We are so glad you are here, and hope whether you are a family of ours, or someone in our sweet community, you can find something enjoyable or beneficial in this space.

I get asked a lot how we ended up “starting a school”. Trust me, this was in no way, shape or form my plan for myself (or my husband, Kyle). When I was in second grade, I had a teacher named Ms. Guerry. She made the BIGGEST impact on my little 7 year old life. The way she connected with me and made me feel so loved eventually led me to want to grow up and be just like her! In other words, I was 7 years old when God placed on my heart that my calling was to grow up and be a teacher. 

Fast forward to 2013, I graduated college and moved back to Texas. I had just spent the last several years of my life living in Arizona where I ended up getting a dual bachelors degree in Special Education and Elementary Education from Arizona State University. Sadly, soon after moving back my great grandfather passed away. At his viewing, I ran into my elementary principal (from the same school where Ms. Guerry taught me), and right then and there set up an interview for me at the local charter school in Arlington, where she was working. In a time of grieving God showed up. I was hired shortly after the interview to teach 3rd grade. It was there where God started planting seeds for what would one day grow into Shiloh Springs. 

I made it my mission  to connect with my students and be the best teacher to them that I could. With my special education background, I felt like I was very in tune with student’s needs. I felt so confident in being able to identify where a student needed to start in order to grow, and knew that sometimes kids needed the option to learn differently than their peer that sat in the desk next to them. At this time, it was perfectly acceptable…. in a special education classroom. My problem was that I was not teaching in a special education setting. I had a self contained general education class of third graders. My other problem was that it was “against the rules” to teach the way I felt was best. I wanted to meet students where they were. I wanted to fill gaps my students had in learning so they could develop the confidence to continue to grow in a healthy way. I wanted to teach my students who were above grade level in math the math skills they were ready to learn and not hold them back. “But Ms. E., your job is to prepare them for the STAAR test.” I can’t tell you how many times I was told this. Nothing in my soul felt like this was what being a teacher was supposed to be. Trying to fit students in a box. Trying to teach within that box. It made no sense.

Over the next 10 years, I fell in love with my students, their families, and my teacher community. Over those 10 years, because of administrative pressures to teach in a way that did not put students first, I started to fall out of love with teaching. I went from teaching third grade to teaching fourth grade for several years. God then took me up to 7th grade where I ended up teaching an on level math class, then in 2019 I taught high school elective classes (God knew I needed the break from teaching core content and the STAAR test). That spring was 2020 and we all know what happened that year. During our break from normal life, God told me I needed to go back to teaching elementary. I really didn’t want to as I really enjoyed the break I had while teaching high school electives. He nudged me to apply to our local public school ISD where I ended up being offered a job as a 3rd grade self contained general education teacher. Coming out of Covid, it felt like my first year teaching all over again. It ended up being one of my most favorite years because I had the BEST class ever, but I quickly learned that just because the school looked nicer and the pay was better, I was back in “the box”. The same box my students and I were in back in 2012, only worse. I was ready to quit again after that year, but God said “not yet”. The very next year I got “voluntold” to move down to teach second grade. I was not happy about this. Second graders seemed so little to me after teaching “bigger kids” for so many years. 

God really grew me the two years I taught second grade. I was forced to learn how to teach students how to read and fell in love with it. I had strictly been a math teacher for most of my teaching career so far. Learning how to teach reading ignited the spark that had been blown out over and over again. This time the flame was strong and not dulling anytime soon (spoiler alert: it’s still going strong). You know the saying, “someone needs to light a match under them so they do something”? I like to think that is what God was doing with me. I had an amazing year teaching that year, and I was so grateful. I stayed in second grade the following year (2021-2022) and ended up having the worst year I had ever experienced in my career. I was at a great school, had the most unforgettable and sweet group of students, I had the best principal ever, I had an amazing and supportive team, and the sweetest teacher friends. In spite of all of those wonderful conditions, I could not ignore the injustice found in the public education system any longer, and it finally broke me, or so I thought. I went home over Christmas break and told Kyle that I couldn’t do it anymore. I told him I would finish the year, but I would also actively be seeking God for answers for what is next…. after vegging out over Christmas break of course.

This may sound ridiculous, but God started speaking to me through Hallmark Channel Christmas movies. Here I thought I was being pathetic while loathing on the couch feeling sorry for myself watching cheesy movies. Wrong. God was using those movies to show me that just because your passion doesn’t fit “in the box”, doesn’t mean you can’t use your passion and create your own box. In a Hallmark Christmas movie, this looks like someone starting a business in a cute little small town shop selling baked goods or old family heirlooms. To me, this would look like building a business including all of my passions and hobbies. I got off of the couch one afternoon during the break and told Kyle that I was going to start a business. A business where I offer students academic support, host family nights to encourage community and fellowship, and pour into teachers by making fun teacher shirts and other merch. It would be called “Room 22” because I envisioned a room full of all of these things that brought me joy, and 22 for the year it all started. Within a couple of months I had started building my student clientele after school at the library where I provided them academic support alongside making shirts and selling them online to teachers in my community. I eventually had to tell my principal that my time in public school was over. God was calling me to do something different.

Something different turned into serving over 20 students that summer providing academic support, and helping launch a micro school here in Mansfield. Though my time with that microschool was only one year, it is ultimately what led me to establish Shiloh Springs Learning Co. A group of families wanted a day time program for their children and wanted me to be their teacher. I said, “no” at first, but God eventually forced me to say “yes”. He was making a way for me to teach in a way I always dreamed of. I fought it because it seemed like such an undertaking. I don’t have a degree in business, and to balance two of them seemed impossible. In Christ all things are possible. Sitting here writing this as we kick off our second school semester as Shiloh Springs cubs, I can say that although challenging, this learning center that we have built has been an answered prayer to so many. It’s a place to grow and learn in a safe space where though you may not succeed the first time, you will be encouraged to keep going. It’s a space to meet kids where they are at academically whether they need gaps filled, or access to resources beyond their typical grade level. It is a space where kids, families, and teachers feel loved, supported, and encouraged in their walk with God. It is one of my favorite places to be. I don’t find it funny at all that in a second grade classroom where I was a student God placed this desire on my heart to teach kids, and many years later in a second grade classroom where I was now the teacher He flamed that desire into something more.