Gestalt Community Schools

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.

Our Beginnings:

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.