DC Hebrew approved!!

[Anonymous]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sela-Public-Charter-School-a-DC-Hebrew-Language-School/220939677930924

Congratulations!!

[Anonymous]

That's amazing! Congrats!

What are the "reasonable conditions" alluded to on Sela's Facebook page? Which grades will the school serve fall 2013?

[Anonymous]

It will be very interesting to see how they keep that curriculum 100% secular and achieve genuine religious diversity in the student body and faculty.

[Anonymous]

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/teaneck_charter_sparking_fresh_debate


One thing I wonder is, this Hebrew school will follow the regular D.C. vacation schedule, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/teaneck_charter_sparking_fresh_debate


One thing I wonder is, this Hebrew school will follow the regular D.C. vacation schedule, right?

Every charter sets its own schedule, including first day of school, last day of school, days off. For example, YY has a day off for Chinese New Year. I would imagine Washington Hebrew would be off on Yom Kippur, Hannukah, and will have school on Christmas.

[Anonymous]

I was at the meeting with another school that did not get approved. All of the schools that were approved had conditions attached. I think the Hebrew school's issue was that they had applied for pre-K-8th grade and they were approved for pre-K through 5th and would need to seek permission to expand to 8th in subsequent years. They said that the Hebrew application was one of the best submitted this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/teaneck_charter_sparking_fresh_debate


One thing I wonder is, this Hebrew school will follow the regular D.C. vacation schedule, right?

Every charter sets its own schedule, including first day of school, last day of school, days off. For example, YY has a day off for Chinese New Year. I would imagine Washington Hebrew would be off on Yom Kippur, Hannukah, and will have school on Christmas.

Likely, instead, to have off:
Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur (two of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar - early fall)
winter break will be the same as everyone else's (over Xmas and New Years - I don't know a single Jewish/Hebrew school in America that has school that week - and Hanukah isn't a holiday that expects time spent away from work/school)
spring break will probably coincide with Passover

[Anonymous]

The real question will be what demographic the school attracts. For instance, will any Latinos apply? I'm sure they'll be a smattering of black students. I say black deliberately not AA. They'll be one or two Asian students - likely from a family that is not Asian. Mark my word.

This was slick. Congratulations.

[Anonymous]

Correction: There'll be not they'll be. (iPhone typing)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/teaneck_charter_sparking_fresh_debate


One thing I wonder is, this Hebrew school will follow the regular D.C. vacation schedule, right?

Every charter sets its own schedule, including first day of school, last day of school, days off. For example, YY has a day off for Chinese New Year. I would imagine Washington Hebrew would be off on Yom Kippur, Hannukah, and will have school on Christmas.

...says someone with clearly no knowledge of Judaism or how "federal holidays" work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/teaneck_charter_sparking_fresh_debate


One thing I wonder is, this Hebrew school will follow the regular D.C. vacation schedule, right?

Every charter sets its own schedule, including first day of school, last day of school, days off. For example, YY has a day off for Chinese New Year. I would imagine Washington Hebrew would be off on Yom Kippur, Hannukah, and will have school on Christmas.

Considering that Christmas is a National holiday, I seriously doubt that.

[Anonymous]

The Hebrew charter school in NYC is 45% Black. I suspect that this school will have a larger percentage of African-American and Hispanic students than NYC. In any case, the Board said that the Hebrew school had one of the strongest applications and really understood the diverse DC school-aged population and was well-poised to serve them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The real question will be what demographic the school attracts. For instance, will any Latinos apply? I'm sure they'll be a smattering of black students. I say black deliberately not AA. They'll be one or two Asian students - likely from a family that is not Asian. Mark my word.

This was slick. Congratulations.

? ? ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The real question will be what demographic the school attracts. For instance, will any Latinos apply? I'm sure they'll be a smattering of black students. I say black deliberately not AA. They'll be one or two Asian students - likely from a family that is not Asian. Mark my word.

This was slick. Congratulations.

? ? ?

Allow me to translate for you on behalf of the PP:

They got a Jewish school funded with taxpayer dollars, and pp thinks it's pretty slick they way they did it.

Kind of a cynical view, but my guess is the school will have to be watched closely. I can't think of a single other charter school that abuts a religious faith so closely. Only about 5 million people worldwide speak Hebrew, so it's not exactly a utilitarian language for kids going into a global economy.

I have no doubt, however, that the school will be studiously secular, and there's certainly benefit for any emergence in a second language. But Chinese and Arabic schools aren't necessarily proxies for religion and those languages have more utility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The real question will be what demographic the school attracts. For instance, will any Latinos apply? I'm sure they'll be a smattering of black students. I say black deliberately not AA. They'll be one or two Asian students - likely from a family that is not Asian. Mark my word.

This was slick. Congratulations.

? ? ?

Allow me to translate for you on behalf of the PP:

They got a Jewish school funded with taxpayer dollars, and pp thinks it's pretty slick they way they did it.

Kind of a cynical view, but my guess is the school will have to be watched closely. I can't think of a single other charter school that abuts a religious faith so closely. Only about 5 million people worldwide speak Hebrew, so it's not exactly a utilitarian language for kids going into a global economy.

I have no doubt, however, that the school will be studiously secular, and there's certainly benefit for any emergence in a second language. But Chinese and Arabic schools aren't necessarily proxies for religion and those languages have more utility.

Please remind me how many people worldwide speak Latin.