KIPP Texas plans on opening a new high school in San Antonio next school year.
The public charter school network said KIPP Somos Collegiate will open with a 160-student ninth-grade class and add a grade each year. The school will open at 731 Fredericksburg Road, just east of Beacon Hill Academy, but will eventually relocate to a permanent facility. While no location is finalized, the school will likely stay within Loop 410 on the Northwest Side, the school’s founding principal said.
This will be the second KIPP high school in San Antonio. KIPP officials said the first high school, KIPP University Prep, which is on the West Side and gets students from KIPP Camino Academy and KIPP Aspire Academy, is at capacity.
Eighth-grade graduates from KIPP Poder Academy, which opened in 2015, will flow into KIPP Somos Collegiate along with other students in the area.
The school will be an AP for All school, which means that each student will graduate having taken at least 10 Advanced Placement courses. Founding Principal Jeremy Gray said his focus on this kind of curriculum comes from his own experience teaching AP classes.
“[It lets you] earn college credit before you get on [a college] campus to save money and move into the courses that are really interesting to you early on,” Gray said, noting that he believes AP courses help prepare students for the rigor and page of a college education.
Gray has been working since the summertime to plan the new school, which will include a social-emotional learning focus. The principal previously served as a master teacher in the San Antonio Independent School District and assistant principal at a school in Arkansas.
There are no concrete plans for extracurriculars just yet, although Gray said he wants to work into students’ schedules a club period each week. He is talking with students at KIPP Poder to decide which sports the school will offer.
Why dont you open over here by Blanco Rd and Wursbach PWY. We need a elementary, a middle school and high school because your Locations are to far for my grandchildrens. They go to Harmony Hill elementary and Eisenhower Middle and
churchill high school.
That’s where we live as well. I thought Poder was far, now it’s going to be even further away. It’s worth it, but uugh
I think Fredericksburg area is perfect or anywhere off 410 and close to the west side is a good area just so that the kids from Kipp Camino or aspire could go to this new high school. Speaking as a parent who’s child goes to Kipp Camino I would prefer if the school was close by on the west side or off 410 just so that it would provide conveniencecy to students and parents.
I believe that this is a great idea however I believe that you should expand KIPP University Prep and not include another high school. The problem with that is, first of all, the bus schedule, y’all are just going to expand the hours leaving students tired at the end of the day due to having bus problems. Another thing is instead of creating the new high school, move the KIPP Esperanza to a different location so that there are more classes for high school students them move KIPP Aspire to a different location as well, which can be with KIPP Esperanza and just have the Cevallos campus one big high school and maybe change the academic to better benefit the students. As an fellow graduate who went to KIPP Aspire and graduated from KIPP University Prep, this is what I believe that y’all should do that benefits everyone.