Page 30 - 2025 April Report

Grant Program Committee minutes (draft) (4)
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The Committee voted unanimously to approve as presented the application from Bottom Line for a 1:1 matching grant of $100,000 over 2 years to support the Bottom Line College Access Program in Dayton, Ohio.
b. Groves Learning Organization
Bryan Fleming, President; Linda Domholt, Director of Advancement; Joel McDougall, Vice President of Data Analytics; Lori Anne Brogdon, Interim Head of School; and Nancy Segreti, Vice President of Admissions, joined the meeting via Zoom. A proposal requesting $525,000 over three years with a 1:1 match had been circulated along with a report from a site visit on March 3, 2025, King Jordan’s 2024 linkage document, and a JSF summary of applicant financial information. Groves Learning is a previous JSF grantee.
Groves serves students from 1st through 12th grades who have language-based learning disabilities. Many of their students come in having not made the expected amount of academic growth throughout the previous years. To measure student progress, Groves Academy lower and middle school students are assessed twice a year using the WIAT-4 (Wechsler Individual Achievement Test - Fourth Edition).
Their program focuses on helping students learn to read to enable them to read to learn. They use what they termed “cognitive processing – assessing what works best for each individual student. Some of their classes are single grade classes, but they also use mixed grade classes to meet specific learning levels and needs. They tout a high rate of success with 70% of their students going on to enter 4-year colleges/universities. 20% enter either a 2-year college or a trade school. The remaining 10% are “considering their options”.
Their financial assistance program, specifically the Groves Academy Tuition Assistance Program, allows them to provide award packages to students with demonstrated financial need to be able to attend the Groves Academy. 35% of their students receive tuition assistance packages.
They have a fundraising campaign with an advancement team of 5. They currently have 270 students but expressed that they could accommodate as many as 350.
Bryan, Linda, Joel, Lori Anne, and Nancy were thanked and the Zoom link disconnected.
While their work is impressive, it was noted that it is an expensive education. Discussion focused largely on what amounts of financial support are being given to which students. Staff was directed to get some clarity on this matter.
The Committee voted unanimously to approve as presented an application from Groves Learning Organization for a 1:1 matching grant of $525,000 over 3 years to benefit their Financial Assistance Program.
c. Boys Hope Girls Hope
Bobby welcomed Kristin Ostby de Barillas, President & CEO, and Bill Fronczak, Vice President of Advancement. A proposal requesting $500,000 over five (5) years with a 1:1 match had been circulated along with the following materials: reports from an August 15, 2024 and a December 10, 2024 Zoom meetings, a January 15, 2025 site visit report, and a JSF summary of applicant financial information. Boys Hope Girls Hope is a previous JSF grantee.
Kristin started by announcing that after nearly 50 years, their name change to Hope Ignites will be official before the end of the month. Their program assists at risk young people from 7th grade through 12th grade in residential and academy programs and then continues through college. Their students are from underrepresented minority communities and very low-income households, and 86% of them are first-generation college students. This year they have 202 students in residential living, 549 in academy programs, and 497 in post-secondary support programs through 14 affiliate sites in the