After 18 years of serving students within five schools in Memphis, Gestalt Community Schools is preparing to expand its college and career model into Jackson.¶
Last month, the Jackson-Madison County School System’s (JMCSS) school board approved Gestalt’s applications to establish two new public charter schools: Gestalt North Jackson Academy and Gestalt East Jackson Academy. Both schools will open with an initial class of K-2 grade students in the first year, then expand to grades K-8 and a capacity of up to 720 students after the fifth year of operation.¶
Gestalt CEO Yetta Lewis expressed a vision rooted not just in academic growth but also in community partnership and long-term impact in an exclusive interview with the Tennessee Firefly.¶
Why Jackson?
Two years ago, Gestalt conducted a feasibility study across five regions to determine which would be best to expand. East and North Jackson were determined to have populations and demographics similar to those of Memphis. The West Tennessee city has yet to have a charter school, though the first, Jackson Museum School, is scheduled to open in the fall.¶
Location was also a factor. Gestalt is still working out the details on each school’s future location, but the plan is to establish them at a strategic distance from each other to fill service gaps. Jackson is also close enough to Memphis that Gestalt will be able to bring school leaders there to train them a year before the new schools open.¶
Three Simple Questions
Lewis tells the Tennessee Firefly that she asked three questions when speaking with local education leaders during the charter application process.¶
- “What is working in your school system?”
“They told us a lot about the innovative models, especially for the high school, and wanting more innovation, even at the k-through-eight (level),” Lewis said, “And that's, I think, aligned with what (JMCSS Superintendent Dr. Marlon King) wants.”¶
- “What would you like to see be different?”
“They talked about more options and the ability to close those gaps, especially academic gaps for our East Jackson schools,” Lewis said.¶
- “Who else should we talk to?”
“From that (question), designing a school with community voice was important,” Lewis said.¶
Community Input
Gestalt has been building relationships with the Jackson community over the past two years and has forged strong partnerships within the district, including with Dr. King. Lewis said those efforts allowed Gestalt to take a comprehensive look at the Jackson-Madison County school system to identify the biggest needs beyond closing academic gaps.¶
Lewis said Gestalt leadership met with more than 70 community stakeholders. They also held one-on-one meetings and hosted dinner meetings with community members to address their concerns. She even had conversations that involved clarifying what a public charter school is and explaining that they are public schools and, in Tennessee, are all nonprofits.¶
What she heard was a community-wide desire to create new programming and models that fit more than just one type of student. Jackson County and Memphis have similar demographics, Lewis said, so Gestalt’s teaching and leadership models will be consistent with what has been implemented in its previous schools.¶
However, some differences will be apparent, including within the new schools’ CTE (career and technical education) models, career development pathways, and even possibly student attire.¶
“Our career and college and technical readiness, that will change very much so in Jackson,” Lewis said. “What are the industries that we need to align to around career development and awareness? We know that will change. Even some cultural elements (will change). We expect uniforms and the mascot to change, even some models around start and stop time of schools will change based on finalized community support.”¶
One thing remained constant when talking to community members: they all want to be heard.¶
“What everyone has in common, families, district members, (and) community members, is they want the best for the children,” Lewis said. “We have different pathways of getting there. So, for Gestalt, it's just finding that commonality to build on (and) trying to find what's best for children.”¶
