The Gathering Place is a charter school on the northwest side of San Antonio right off Loop 410 that nurtures and celebrates the inner brilliance of all children. They are accepting applications for enrollment for the current school year in grades K–4, and for the upcoming school year in grades K–5. We have put together a guide to help you learn more about The Gathering Place and take steps to enroll your child.
About The Gathering Place
The Gathering Place opened in August 2020 under the leadership of co-founders Asia Klekowicz and Ryan York, drawing on their experience as teachers, school leaders, and curriculum developers in innovative schools across the United States. For the current school year (2022–23), The Gathering Place is serving kids in kindergarten through fourth grade. They will grow to add one grade per year—so, grades K–5 in the coming school year (2023–24) until they are fully K–12.
The Gathering Place is a hands-on, project-based learning school with an emphasis on arts and social justice. In elementary school, children have art every single day, and their learning experiences dive into social justice and equity to continuously engage in cycles of awareness, action, and reflection.
Asia and Ryan emphasize the importance of unlearning at The Gathering Place as the school is innovatively building everything from the ground up. TGP does not replicate traditional forms of teaching, so children, caregivers, and staff alike are on a journey of unlearning and are actively engaged in building what school could look like.
To understand more on who The Gathering Place is, and their commitment to social justice as well as to building a never-before-seen philosophy and approach to school, we recommend reading the following from their website: Manifesto, #BLM, Commitment to DEI.
To read more about The Gathering Place in the news, we recommend that you click on the articles linked at the bottom of this post. Also, we invite you to join the San Antonio Charter Moms discussion group on Facebook and ask questions; the group includes current TGP families who can comment with answers based on their own experiences.
The Gathering Place in San Antonio
The Gathering Place currently serves students in grades K–4, with plans to add 5th grade in 2023–24. They will continue to expand each year until they are serving grades K–12.
Their campus is located at 5818 NW Loop 410, San Antonio, TX 78238 (map). The main phone number is 210-942-4850, and you can reach them by email at enroll@thegatheringplacek12.org.
On their most recent district report card and school report card, they were not rated.
Download the free San Antonio Charter Schools app for an interactive map that includes The Gathering Place and many more. You can also find campus information about TGP (and many other schools of choice) in our Guide to Charter Schools in San Antonio.
Enrollment Information
Families can apply online to enroll their children at The Gathering Place. Open enrollment for 2023–24 continues through March 3, 2023. For the coming school year, The Gathering Place is accepting applications for grades K–5.
Follow The Gathering Place on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Videos about TGP can be found on co-founder Ryan York’s YouTube channel.
In addition, please join the San Antonio Charter Moms discussion group on Facebook to post questions and search previous discussions about TGP.
Charter Moms Chats
Watch Jay Jackson-Carter, Principal at The Gathering Place, and Ryan York, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of The Gathering Place, speak with Inga Cotton on Charter Moms Chats on January 24, 2023 at 4:00 PM Central live on Facebook and YouTube.
Jay Jackson-Carter is the Founding Principal at The Gathering Place. Through her eyes: Faith, Family, and Music! She is equal parts ALL of these attributes. Her FAITH is a part of her identity, all in love. FAMILY is what has shaped every part of her life, becoming a mother encouraged her to teach; being a middle sister has molded her to be a great listener and mentor; and being a daughter of a no-nonsense single educated black mother has groomed her to be a strong independent single educated black mother herself! MUSIC is the very fabric of how she expresses herself to the world in all forms, and genres. PERIOD!
Ryan York’s (M. Ed) career started by co-founding a nonprofit that served hundreds of children each year through its flagship program “Southern Girls Rock and Roll Camp” and opening a 6,000 sq. ft. after-school arts facility outside of Nashville. Transitioning into the classroom, he was awarded the district All Star teacher award and developed a blended learning software management platform that led to the highest math growth in the district by enrolled teachers. As principal, Ryan led a school turnaround that ended with the highest staff retention, math scores, and 5th grade reading growth in one of the top performing school systems in Tennessee.
Asia and Ryan began working together when they teamed up with RePublic Schools to create a middle and high school computer science curriculum and teacher training program. After six months, Ryan was promoted to CIO and won the National Sally Ride & Deloitte Award for Innovation, while Asia scaled the project-based CS program from 250 students to 10,000+ students across eight states. Her work also resulted in the largest district-charter partnership in Nashville history, bringing RePublic’s CS program to all district middle schools.
After hearing repeating messages from students in different schools in different states: that they were not seen in their school, that school was boring, and that it was not relevant in their lives, Asia and Ryan realized that there was a need for an entirely different approach to how we think about school—that instead of making existing school better or more effective, what was needed was to build an entirely different school approach that was built on the wishes of children and what they wanted in a school—and that is how The Gathering Place was born.
Read More About The Gathering Place
- “The Gathering Place: Meet the Texas School Pioneering a New Model of Learning”, International Business Times, December 1, 2022
- “The Gathering Place Launches Projects Designed to Boost Student Entrepreneurship”, Yahoo!, November 11, 2022
- “The Gathering Place Announces New Project-Based Learning Model for US Schools,” Business Insider, October 28, 2022
- “Hunkering down against COVID, San Antonio’s charter schools are in the mask minefield,” Claire Bryan and Danya Perez, San Antonio Express-News, September 13, 2021
- “Charter Moms Chats—The Gathering Place, With Asia Klekowicz and Ryan York,” YouTube, May 4, 2021
- “Virtual learning working out for conferences and schools alike, impacting San Antonio,” Amanda Henderson, News 4 San Antonio, August 20, 2020
- “These Three Principals Are Opening New Schools This Fall. If That Sounds Challenging, You’re Right,” Bekah McNeel, 74 Million, August 12, 2020
- “3 New San Antonio Charter Schools Plan to Open in Fall 2020,” Emily Donaldson, San Antonio Report, April 27, 2020
- “Meet The Gathering Place, One of San Antonio’s Newest and Busiest Charter Schools,” Bekah McNeel, San Antonio Charter Moms, June 22, 2019
- “After fight, state education panel OKs new San Antonio charter schools,” Alia Malik, San Antonio Express-News, June 17, 2019
- “Board of Education Approves Two New San Antonio Charter Schools for 2020–21,” Emily Donaldson, San Antonio Report, June 14, 2019
- “Seven new San Antonio-area charter schools planned to open by 2020,” Ryan Salchert, San Antonio Business Journal, June 12, 2019
- “Two Applicants Look to Open New Charter Schools in San Antonio,” Emily Donaldson, San Antonio Report, May 1, 2019
- “Federal money to fuel charter expansion, including IDEA’s big San Antonio plans,” Liz Teitz, San Antonio Express-News, April 25, 2019
- “New charter school hopefuls eye San Antonio for expansion,” Liz Teitz, San Antonio Express-News, February 22, 2019
- “The Gathering Place Presents the Great Food Truck Summer Camp Showcase,” San Antonio Charter Moms, October 17, 2018
