WS Chronicle

Crossnore Communities for Children has named Rashawn Grissom Meekins the first principal of its new charter school in Winston-Salem, which will open in August 2025. Meekins comes to Crossnore after a long career as an educator, leader, and consultant with Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, where she most recently served as assistant principal at Cook Literacy Model School.

The Crossnore Community Charter School will be housed in multiple former school buildings on Crossnore’s Winston-Salem campus located off Reynolda Road. It will open in August 2025 for students in grades K through 4, expand to K through 5 in August 2026, and will serve grades K through 8 in August 2027.

The Crossnore team is dedicated to fostering a nurturing learning environment that embraces both trauma-informed practices and principles of equity. This approach aims to: recognize and support students who may have faced challenging experiences, create a safe and supportive atmosphere for all learners, and promote fairness and equal opportunities for success. By weaving together compassionate understanding with a commitment to fairness, we strive to empower every student to thrive academically, emotionally, and socially.

 “We are ecstatic that Rashawn is joining our team as principal of our charter school. She has already hit the ground running and is providing invaluable insight on planning and preparation for the opening of our school next August,” Crossnore Chief Executive Officer Brett Loftis said. “Renovations to the future home of the charter school are well underway and are expected to be completed by early summer 2025. We will initiate enrollment for students entering grades K through 4 within the next few weeks, and hiring for teaching and staff positions will take place in early 2025.”

Prior to her position at Cook Literacy Model School, Meekins served as a dean of students, a school improvement grant coach, a literacy coach, and a Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) coordinator at Kimberley Park Elementary School. For the past eight years, she has also participated in the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools program in different capacities.

“My vision for the Crossnore Community Charter School in Winston-Salem is that it will be a model school for how education is done differently,” Meekins said. “We will not only focus on academics but also the social-emotional well-being of students. Our school will address the needs of the whole child, as well as the needs of all scholars, based on their individuality.

 ”As a school, we will engage in trauma-informed practices in which all students and staff feel safe, welcomed, supported, and empowered to fully participate in what Crossnore’s School has to offer,” she added. “Learning will look different at Crossnore. We will use research-based practices to differentiate instruction in smaller classroom settings. Our school will be a place where an ongoing, inquiry-based process allows for the necessary teamwork, coordination, creativity, and sharing of responsibility for all students, and where continuous learning is available to educators as well as students.”

Meekins received a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Winston-Salem State University, a master’s degree in teaching and special education from Salem College, and a master’s degree in school administration from North Carolina A&T State University.

To learn more about the charter school and to complete the enrollment interest survey, please visit https://www.crossnore.org/crossnore-charter-school.

About Crossnore Communities for Children

For more than 100 years, Crossnore has been one of the most trusted names in child safety, protection, and welfare as a provider of holistic care, hope, and healing for children who have experienced trauma. Our promise to all children and families is to value and accept them wholly and to devote our exceptional resources to their needs. No organization is better positioned than Crossnore Communities for Children to give vulnerable families a broad-based ecosystem of support. For more information about Crossnore Communities for Children, please visit crossnore.org.