Compass Rose is a tuition-free public charter school based in San Antonio. It established its first campus in southeast San Antonio in 2017. The upcoming school will be open to students from throughout the community and offer curricula and special programs connected with industries that are thriving at the Port, including aerospace, cybersecurity, robotics, IT and several applied technologies.

“Our new Port location is a huge step forward in advancing our mission to prepare young people throughout San Antonio with a strong educational foundation that empowers them to pursue and achieve big ambitions,” said Compass Rose Founder and CEO Paul Morrissey. “The Port is an exciting place that will provide our students with a learning environment that is significantly bolstered by the great technological advances being led by cutting-edge industries just down the street from our new facility.”

“We’re very pleased that Compass Rose will provide a new place where young people will be inspired by, learn from and connect with leading technologies that are changing the world,” said Port San Antonio President and CEO Jim Perschbach.

“The new school significantly advances our vision to use this property strategically so that it provides people of all ages a path leading to some great opportunities,” he added. “In recent months we’ve launched several important educational initiatives on this property, and we look forward to working with Compass Rose students in the years ahead to enrich their lives through education as they build their own futures.”

The school at the Port will consist of several new buildings now under construction. The first phase entails two facilities totaling 45,000 square feet of classroom and cafeteria / multi-purpose space which, along with a new basketball court, will be completed by the summer of 2020.

Subsequent phases will include four more buildings with additional classroom and administration space as well as a gymnasium. Upon completion, the six-building complex will total nearly 130,000 square feet.

School administrators plan to make portions of the facility, including the basketball court, available for activities by the surrounding neighborhoods as well as other schools and partners in the region.

Compass Rose is already accepting interest forms. For additional information, families can visit www.compassrosesa.org or call (210) 237-7160.

The new school will be located on the 500 block of Billy Mitchell Boulevard near the intersection with General McMullen Drive. It is just across the street from the Port’s 374-unit Gateway Residences town homes complex and next to the Port’s historic Chennault Circle district.

Several important educational resources at the Port will also be located close to the school.

Just to the south of the new Compass Rose complex is the current site of the San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology (SAMSAT). Launched in 2017, the museum has been an instrumental resource for students and educators throughout San Antonio. Its exhibit space includes an array of unique artifacts that chronicle the history of numerous technological innovations that changed the world, including many that were developed in San Antonio, such as personal computing, local area networks and secure telecommunications.

Alongside with nonprofit educational partners SASTEMIC and The WEX Foundation—who are also based at the museum—SAMSAT has used its initial home at the Port to deliver an array of STEM-based programs to schools districts from all over San Antonio. In recent months, over 10,000 students have participated in free activities at the museum that include classes focused on cybersecurity, aerospace, architecture, telecommunications and other scientific fields. Compass Rose students will also be able to tap into these resources.

The Port is working with SAMSAT and other partners to significantly expand educational programs in the months ahead. Port San Antonio's planned innovation center will be located close to the new Compass Rose campus. The large upcoming state-of-the art educational resource will be accessible by all schools in the region and have a capacity to accommodate STEM programs for over 100,000 students per year.

The proposed innovation center would provide a unique platform to connect the San Antonio community, educators and technology employers. It would also showcase new technologies developed in San Antonio and provide a platform to market them to buyers.

Among its features, the innovation center will provide SAMSAT with a considerably larger space to house its exhibits alongside modern classrooms to support simultaneous activities by school groups and other visitors. It will be part of a 130,000-square-foot building that will also include a large capacity technology arena hosting educational programs as well as technology competitions and demonstrations, such as electronic gaming, robotics and drone racing.