Former Memphis Principal to Lead Proposed Urban Dove Charter School

Terri Gaston (In the blue dress) with Urban Dove Team Charter School IV Manhattan leaders. (Photo Courtesy Terri Gaston)

Terri Gaston believes in her heart of hearts that she can save every student.

“That's what I sought to do, and that's what the kids did,” Gaston said. “It just took a lot of work.”

Gaston spent six years doing just that as the principal of Power Center Academy High School, a public charter school serving a large percentage of economically disadvantaged students. Last year, the Tennessee Department of Education gave the school its highest rating, a Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) Level 5, for growth and overall growth among the highest-needs students.

The Memphis native plans to use that experience to make the proposed Urban Dove Team Charter School Memphis I, a success.

“A lot of what I learned and did in my heart for the kids, my feeling that you can save them all, that's what I'm taking with me to Urban Dove Memphis, and my hope is that by saving 300 kids, we could start changing this narrative about our young people that's happening right now in Memphis,” Gaston said.

Gaston is the school leader for Urban Dove’s planned charter school in the Hickory Hill area of Memphis, one of two the organization is proposing to open.

Both are Opportunity Schools: a new category of public charter schools designed to serve at-risk students from grades six through 12. Urban Dove will focus on providing a tailored education to students in the community, as well as on long-term growth and post-high-school success.

The proposed charter schools are among six that the Memphis-Shelby County School Board will vote on next week.

The Urban Dove Model

Gaston spent around three months in New York last year, where Urban Dove is based, to prepare to lead the school by shadowing principals across their campuses. She thought seeing the education model in action in a completely different setting would be a culture shock.

“It was not,” Gaston said. “Everywhere I went, I saw our kids. I saw my kids. I even met a student who had lived in Millington. He told me that if I said his name in Millington, he got in so much trouble, people would remember him.”

A lot of the students who will attend Urban Dove are what Gaston calls “over-aged and under-credited.” For instance, there could be an 18-year-old student who has been chronically absent for most of their high school career, who is really at a ninth-grade level.

Instead of having grade levels, which could make many of these students feel discouraged before they even begin trying to pick up where they left off in their education, they will be placed in one of three “leagues.”

The school will operate these leagues under a sports-themed team-building concept, with coaches serving as advisors to students.

Urban Dove started as an after-school program. Its founder was inspired when he noticed that students who had nothing to do after school were less engaged than those who played on sports teams. He wanted all his students to benefit from being on a team and to know what it means to work together toward a common goal.

“We know of the coach who can get his football players to do things that no one else can get them to do, right?” Gaston said. “But the reality is that all kids don't make the team, and so what he sought to do was give kids the benefit of this team environment where they have a coach who basically holds them accountable (and) loops with them through three years.”

The students do learn a sport, but it’s ok if they aren’t as good at it as others because everyone plays their part.

“If you’re not great at it, you might be the manager, or you might be the score taker, but everyone in the school participates with a team,” Gaston said.

Memphis Focused

Gaston says she knows that Memphis schools are going through a period of possible reform, and that comes with trepidation, especially regarding outsiders. She concedes that some might be skeptical about an organization from a completely different part of the country coming in and setting up shop in town.

Gaston said that’s part of the reason why her personal background as a Memphis native is so important for Urban Dove School Memphis I.

“I've worked everywhere from North Memphis to Hickory Hill, and then I came to New York and did a residency to learn about the Urban Dove model, and my goal to learn about that model was to translate that to what works in Memphis,” Gaston said.

To do that, she has met with local groups and principals who work in alternative school settings to ensure that Urban Dove will represent Memphis well. Gaston says that she is committed to grassroots efforts and meeting people where they are.

“I do realize it's going to be a lot of work, but I think it starts with a lot of small conversations along the way, a lot of getting out in the streets, going to churches, going to community events, which is what I've been doing,” Gaston said. “(We’re) letting people know that we're not some interloper network trying to swoop in. We’re just trying to fill a need in our school system that I feel like hadn't been filled, and that's creating a school just for these students.”

If approved by the school board, Gaston’s school would open in the 2027-2028 school year, serving 135 students. Urban Dove is planned to expand to 310 students within five years.