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- Gestalt Community Schools
Gestalt Community Schools
With schools failing, families filing for bankruptcy and foreclosure, and businesses leaving a struggling community in Memphis, Tennessee, Yetta Lewis, and Derwin Sisnett saw a need for education and community development. They worked to develop a community-based school that would address both. In 2008, Power Center Academy opened its doors to 125 sixth-grade students in Hickory Hill. Power Center Academy and the neighborhood began to see early successes through increased achievement scores and the elimination of community blight. In 2011, Yetta and Derwin founded Gestalt Community Schools, a charter management organization, to scale the work begun in 2008.
The vision is building better communities through education. To this end, Gestalt targets low-income communities that have failing schools then catalyzes grassroots leadership to revitalize the neighborhood, educates the youth through high-performing schools, and partners with providers to tackle out-of-school challenges that hinder students from succeeding.
Gestalt Community Schools operates five schools in the Memphis community and serves more than 2,200 scholars in grades K-12.
The vision is building better communities through education. To this end, Gestalt targets low-income communities that have failing schools then catalyzes grassroots leadership to revitalize the neighborhood, educates the youth through high-performing schools, and partners with providers to tackle out-of-school challenges that hinder students from succeeding.
Gestalt Community Schools operates five schools in the Memphis community and serves more than 2,200 scholars in grades K-12.
Purpose
Gestalt Community Schools is a system of K-12 college-preparatory charter schools in targeted Memphis, Tennessee communities. Gestalt schools provide strong academic outcomes for their scholars through initiatives that include meaningful community involvement. Gestalt catalyzes community leadership to help revitalize the neighborhood as it operates its schools in that community. Instead of debating whether education impacts the community or vice versa, Gestalt believes the most effective method to support student achievement is an integration of education and community, a true gestalt: a whole greater than the sum of its parts.
Vision
The vision is building better communities through education. To this end, Gestalt targets low-income communities that have failing schools, then catalyzes grassroots leadership to revitalize the neighborhood, educates the youth through high-performing schools, and partners with providers to tackle out-of-school challenges that hinder students from succeeding.
Mission
The Gestalt mission is to leverage community assets to empower citizens who will be college-ready, career-ready, and community-ready. We will achieve this mission by providing students with an exceptional educational program defined by rigorous curriculum standards, high expectations for academic achievement, integrated technology, and community service.
Additional Culture Details
Our Unique Vision
Gestalt is the only charter network in Memphis that puts as much emphasis on the out-of-school factors that could hinder a child from succeeding as on the in-school culture and academics. While we focus first and foremost on the scholars, we also work to rebuild and revitalize the communities where our scholars live and learn, which widens our impact. Moving forward, we’re now working on an innovative method to measure the impact we make on the community, and to track how improving the community makes a positive change for the students.
We are a Village.
“It takes a village to raise a child.” But then why do so many schools operate alone as they address the
comprehensive challenge of serving the whole child, school, and community? To focus on academics
without trauma-informed practices inhibits our ability to serve the whole child and garner community
transformation. Building a village anchored in humility is the key: Gestalt Community Schools leads
with our core value of humility, the understanding that this work is too important to do alone. As
a result, we work to leverage community partnerships, educational programming, and community
development efforts to build a complete “village.” This village starts with the cultivation of the individual
student, which includes academic and social-emotional facets of the student’s educational journey.
The academic program and the socio-emotional infrastructure work in tandem to serve the whole
child. If the needs of the whole child are met, then he or she can learn and contribute to the community.
Gestalt is the only charter network in Memphis that puts as much emphasis on the out-of-school factors that could hinder a child from succeeding as on the in-school culture and academics. While we focus first and foremost on the scholars, we also work to rebuild and revitalize the communities where our scholars live and learn, which widens our impact. Moving forward, we’re now working on an innovative method to measure the impact we make on the community, and to track how improving the community makes a positive change for the students.
We are a Village.
“It takes a village to raise a child.” But then why do so many schools operate alone as they address the
comprehensive challenge of serving the whole child, school, and community? To focus on academics
without trauma-informed practices inhibits our ability to serve the whole child and garner community
transformation. Building a village anchored in humility is the key: Gestalt Community Schools leads
with our core value of humility, the understanding that this work is too important to do alone. As
a result, we work to leverage community partnerships, educational programming, and community
development efforts to build a complete “village.” This village starts with the cultivation of the individual
student, which includes academic and social-emotional facets of the student’s educational journey.
The academic program and the socio-emotional infrastructure work in tandem to serve the whole
child. If the needs of the whole child are met, then he or she can learn and contribute to the community.
Values
- Love Radically
- Gestalt is not school as usual. Here, you are part of a community that builds relationships like family. At Gestalt, we want scholars, families and staff to be Known and Loved — for your strengths and weaknesses; your passions; your past, present and envisioned future. Only then can we educate you. Radical love means we make personal sacrifices to know, support and nurture one another.
Recent Awards
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