KIPP to Open Its Second High School for Fall 2019

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.