Asia Klekowicz and Ryan York - The Gathering Place: An Elementary School With a Focus on Project-Based Learning, the Arts, and Helping Underserved Neighborhoods - 452

Asia Klekowicz and Ryan York - The Gathering Place: An Elementary School With a Focus on Project-Based Learning, the Arts, and Helping Underserved Neighborhoods. This is episode 452 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast.

The Gathering Place is the first and only restorative campus founded and based in San Antonio, Texas. Conceptualized by co-founders Asia Klekowicz and Ryan York, The Gathering Place’s education model is rooted in social justice and project-based learning and was inspired by Klekowicz and York’s beliefs that kids, especially in historically underserved neighborhoods, don't get a complete education. The pair spent 10 years teaching, leading, and seeing glimmers of what could be when teachers are trusted, kids are loved for who they are, and administrators don’t measure students by test scores. The Gathering Place opened in 2020 and currently serves Kindergarten to Third Grade, with plans to add a new grade level annually through the Twelfth Grade. 

Asia Klekowicz (M. Ed) joined the movement for educational equity after witnessing the injustice of the school-to-prison pipeline while tutoring inmates in Boston. She joined Teach for America-Memphis and led her students to achieve 2.5years of growth, ranking in the highest percentiles across the state. She transitioned to developing high school math teachers across Chicago where she was the only coach in her organization to be recognized for excellence by every teacher in her cohort. She later ventured into the financial sector where she worked as an investment consultant managing a $536 million book and became the fastest promoted employee in the region.

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 6,000sq. 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. Ryan and Asia 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.

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Length - 01:01:46