OK, I will start this thread - Sela

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote]Are Sela's meals Kosher?

I don't think so.
[/quote]

Bummer--is that something we can change? Also, how do they plan to accomodate exceptions for holidays, e.g., Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover? Are there also exceptions if we take off time for Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret / Simchat Torah, & Shavu'ot? They don't count absences on holidays against us, do they?

If the PP is curious, we are currently at the Adas Israel. [/quote]

Sela is not a Jewish Day School. Please don't try to make it one.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote]Are Sela's meals Kosher?

I don't think so.
[/quote]

Bummer--is that something we can change? Also, how do they plan to accomodate exceptions for holidays, e.g., Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover? Are there also exceptions if we take off time for Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret / Simchat Torah, & Shavu'ot? They don't count absences on holidays against us, do they?

If the PP is curious, we are currently at the Adas Israel. [/quote]


Uh why would you think the school should offer kosher meals. Sounds very expensive and applicable to a small number of students.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Are Sela's meals Kosher?

I don't think so.
[/quote]

Bummer--is that something we can change? Also, how do they plan to accomodate exceptions for holidays, e.g., Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover? Are there also exceptions if we take off time for Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret / Simchat Torah, & Shavu'ot? They don't count absences on holidays against us, do they?

If the PP is curious, we are currently at the Adas Israel. [/quote]

Sela is not a Jewish Day School. Please don't try to make it one.[/quote]

+1 (and I am Jewish).

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Are Sela's meals Kosher?

I don't think so.
[/quote]

Bummer--is that something we can change? Also, how do they plan to accomodate exceptions for holidays, e.g., Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover? Are there also exceptions if we take off time for Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret / Simchat Torah, & Shavu'ot? They don't count absences on holidays against us, do they?

If the PP is curious, we are currently at the Adas Israel. [/quote]


Uh why would you think the school should offer kosher meals. Sounds very expensive and applicable to a small number of students. [/quote]

Man, doesn't this kind of thing play into the hands of those who said Sela wouldn't be able to separate the Hebrew and the Jewish?

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Are Sela's meals Kosher?

I don't think so.
[/quote]

Bummer--is that something we can change? Also, how do they plan to accomodate exceptions for holidays, e.g., Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover? Are there also exceptions if we take off time for Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret / Simchat Torah, & Shavu'ot? They don't count absences on holidays against us, do they?

If the PP is curious, we are currently at the Adas Israel. [/quote]


Uh why would you think the school should offer kosher meals. Sounds very expensive and applicable to a small number of students. [/quote]

Man, doesn't this kind of thing play into the hands of those who said Sela wouldn't be able to separate the Hebrew and the Jewish?[/quote]

Sela offers a vegetarian choice at every meal, as do all the other charters that use Revolution Foods. I know many Jewish families who keep Kosher at home, as well as Muslim families who keep Halal who are comfortable with their kids eating vegetarian foods outside of the home. Vegetarian foods are not more expensive than foods that include meat.

In addition, Sela is bound by the same truancy laws as the rest of the city, which include provisions for students who miss school for religious observance. This would allow you to keep your child home for Simchat Torah or Eid or Good Friday as you wish.

[Anonymous]

A vegetarian meal plan is available. Sela did not have class on RH this year, and is unlikely to next year. They accommodate students of a variety of faiths who need days off for religious holidays - those are excused absences - and they will provide work to take home and pull-out where needed to help students catch up. Sela does not have Jewish curricula - and has students from a broad cross-section of faith groups.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote]Are Sela's meals Kosher?

I don't think so.
[/quote]

Bummer--is that something we can change? Also, how do they plan to accomodate exceptions for holidays, e.g., Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover? Are there also exceptions if we take off time for Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret / Simchat Torah, & Shavu'ot? They don't count absences on holidays against us, do they?

If the PP is curious, we are currently at the Adas Israel. [/quote]

I've heard at least one Hebrew charter in another city offers kosher meals, but here they probably determined the demographics didn't warrant the cost; you could see if they'd be willing to change to kosher or your kids could bring lunches from home.

The holidays would be another question for the school; I'd expect they'd have the same policy as DCPS.

Are you planning on Sela for this fall? Do other Adas families go to Sela?

[Anonymous]

I finally had a chance to read through this entire thread from the beginning. I'm new to DCUM so I'd like to take a moment to comment on some things I've read so far. I thought twice about posting anything here because you guys are a tough crowd when someone posts something with which you don't agree. Consequently, I didn't find a lot of positive commentary about Sela compared to all the negative opinions regarding the staff turnover, not being added to the DCI, "why Hebrew anyway", and a bunch of seemingly personal attacks on the premise of the school. Still can't figure out that "sock puppet" absurdity but I'll save that for another day. Just know I'm not the sock puppet lol. Jeff, you can verify that if you like . I'm just a parent who met with the administration team at Sela for almost three hours and asked a ton of questions about the plan for the school. They answered all of them to the best of their ability and I was pleased with the responses. Sidenote - are there any parents on this forum whose children REALLY attend Sela? I'm more interested in YOUR comments versus these other naysayers.

I met with both Dr. Lody and Carrie during an open house and they both were very personable and honest about the challenges the school faced. It seems a bit unrealistic to believe a new school would not face challenges in leadership and losing teachers. I've done research on many DC schools and I'm sure I can find a parent, teacher or administrator that would voice concerns about even the "best" of schools. Judging by all of you who didn't get your first or 18th choice for schools (didn't get waitlisted either), to criticize a school trying to provide a quality education seems really unfair. Another sidenote - to the poster who mentioned 7 families entering the lottery for another school after having been at Sela...I didn't read a reason for the mass exodus. Or maybe I missed it? Care to share?

I am a parent who is less focused on the particular language and more excited about the opportunity my child will have to learn another language in general. I have quite a few friends whose children attend language immersion schools (not in the DC area) and I think it's great that a child can learn another language at an early age. I admit I was skeptical of Hebrew. At the end of the day, however, I was impressed with Sela's vision and plan for the future of the school. Can they predict everything will fall in place perfectly? No. I am ok with that though because I know there is a responsibility of parents to also be involved in their child's education. I watched the kids interact with their teachers in class. The kids were happy and singing in Hebrew. A diverse group of little people eager to learn is a plus in my book. Oh and that playground "issue" lol. We were told the land was approved for a playground right outside the school doors and it was in the works to be built. I'll see about finding a date for when they plan to break ground.

We also met with a few of the teachers who teach Hebrew. They talked about how the language is taught and its positive effects on a child's learning and development. Again, I'm sure you can say that about any language. And again, I'm ok with my child learning Hebrew so as long as she's getting a quality education. She could learn any language for that matter!

Can someone give me some background on the importance of DCI? Forgive my ignorance but I saw a lot of commentary about that and Sela presenting this idea as if it were set in stone versus there never being talks of it? I'm a little confused as to what happened/what was said?

Have a happy weekend!

[Anonymous]

I think the issue with administration is that they are very good at talking the talk, but not necessarily walking the walk. Sela seems really great in theory, but it definitely has had some bumps so far. Hopefully things will improve and I wish them luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I finally had a chance to read through this entire thread from the beginning. I'm new to DCUM so I'd like to take a moment to comment on some things I've read so far. I thought twice about posting anything here because you guys are a tough crowd when someone posts something with which you don't agree. Consequently, I didn't find a lot of positive commentary about Sela compared to all the negative opinions regarding the staff turnover, not being added to the DCI, "why Hebrew anyway", and a bunch of seemingly personal attacks on the premise of the school. Still can't figure out that "sock puppet" absurdity but I'll save that for another day. Just know I'm not the sock puppet lol. Jeff, you can verify that if you like . I'm just a parent who met with the administration team at Sela for almost three hours and asked a ton of questions about the plan for the school. They answered all of them to the best of their ability and I was pleased with the responses. Sidenote - are there any parents on this forum whose children REALLY attend Sela? I'm more interested in YOUR comments versus these other naysayers.

I met with both Dr. Lody and Carrie during an open house and they both were very personable and honest about the challenges the school faced. It seems a bit unrealistic to believe a new school would not face challenges in leadership and losing teachers. I've done research on many DC schools and I'm sure I can find a parent, teacher or administrator that would voice concerns about even the "best" of schools. Judging by all of you who didn't get your first or 18th choice for schools (didn't get waitlisted either), to criticize a school trying to provide a quality education seems really unfair. Another sidenote - to the poster who mentioned 7 families entering the lottery for another school after having been at Sela...I didn't read a reason for the mass exodus. Or maybe I missed it? Care to share?

I am a parent who is less focused on the particular language and more excited about the opportunity my child will have to learn another language in general. I have quite a few friends whose children attend language immersion schools (not in the DC area) and I think it's great that a child can learn another language at an early age. I admit I was skeptical of Hebrew. At the end of the day, however, I was impressed with Sela's vision and plan for the future of the school. Can they predict everything will fall in place perfectly? No. I am ok with that though because I know there is a responsibility of parents to also be involved in their child's education. I watched the kids interact with their teachers in class. The kids were happy and singing in Hebrew. A diverse group of little people eager to learn is a plus in my book. Oh and that playground "issue" lol. We were told the land was approved for a playground right outside the school doors and it was in the works to be built. I'll see about finding a date for when they plan to break ground.


We also met with a few of the teachers who teach Hebrew. They talked about how the language is taught and its positive effects on a child's learning and development. Again, I'm sure you can say that about any language. And again, I'm ok with my child learning Hebrew so as long as she's getting a quality education. She could learn any language for that matter!

Can someone give me some background on the importance of DCI? Forgive my ignorance but I saw a lot of commentary about that and Sela presenting this idea as if it were set in stone versus there never being talks of it? I'm a little confused as to what happened/what was said?

Have a happy weekend!

In your conversations with the school admnistrations, did anyone mention if the school will remain at the same location? Since you mentioned that the playground is to be built shortly, it sounds like there are some long term plans for that location. Thanks - parent considering Sela for PK4.

[Anonymous]

5 year lease

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I finally had a chance to read through this entire thread from the beginning. I'm new to DCUM so I'd like to take a moment to comment on some things I've read so far. I thought twice about posting anything here because you guys are a tough crowd when someone posts something with which you don't agree. Consequently, I didn't find a lot of positive commentary about Sela compared to all the negative opinions regarding the staff turnover, not being added to the DCI, "why Hebrew anyway", and a bunch of seemingly personal attacks on the premise of the school. Still can't figure out that "sock puppet" absurdity but I'll save that for another day. Just know I'm not the sock puppet lol. Jeff, you can verify that if you like . I'm just a parent who met with the administration team at Sela for almost three hours and asked a ton of questions about the plan for the school. They answered all of them to the best of their ability and I was pleased with the responses. Sidenote - are there any parents on this forum whose children REALLY attend Sela? I'm more interested in YOUR comments versus these other naysayers.

I met with both Dr. Lody and Carrie during an open house and they both were very personable and honest about the challenges the school faced. It seems a bit unrealistic to believe a new school would not face challenges in leadership and losing teachers. I've done research on many DC schools and I'm sure I can find a parent, teacher or administrator that would voice concerns about even the "best" of schools. Judging by all of you who didn't get your first or 18th choice for schools (didn't get waitlisted either), to criticize a school trying to provide a quality education seems really unfair. Another sidenote - to the poster who mentioned 7 families entering the lottery for another school after having been at Sela...I didn't read a reason for the mass exodus. Or maybe I missed it? Care to share?

I am a parent who is less focused on the particular language and more excited about the opportunity my child will have to learn another language in general. I have quite a few friends whose children attend language immersion schools (not in the DC area) and I think it's great that a child can learn another language at an early age. I admit I was skeptical of Hebrew. At the end of the day, however, I was impressed with Sela's vision and plan for the future of the school. Can they predict everything will fall in place perfectly? No. I am ok with that though because I know there is a responsibility of parents to also be involved in their child's education. I watched the kids interact with their teachers in class. The kids were happy and singing in Hebrew. A diverse group of little people eager to learn is a plus in my book. Oh and that playground "issue" lol. We were told the land was approved for a playground right outside the school doors and it was in the works to be built. I'll see about finding a date for when they plan to break ground.

We also met with a few of the teachers who teach Hebrew. They talked about how the language is taught and its positive effects on a child's learning and development. Again, I'm sure you can say that about any language. And again, I'm ok with my child learning Hebrew so as long as she's getting a quality education. She could learn any language for that matter!

Can someone give me some background on the importance of DCI? Forgive my ignorance but I saw a lot of commentary about that and Sela presenting this idea as if it were set in stone versus there never being talks of it? I'm a little confused as to what happened/what was said?

Have a happy weekend!

Is it set in stone that Sela will or will not join DCI? We're at a DCI feeder, and it seems like they could have potential to be a good fit. It also seem like that decision could be a few years away given that their oldest class is maybe 2nd grade or so.

[Anonymous]

Not at all set in stone. More like a faint vague hope. Please do correct me if I'm wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I finally had a chance to read through this entire thread from the beginning. I'm new to DCUM so I'd like to take a moment to comment on some things I've read so far. I thought twice about posting anything here because you guys are a tough crowd when someone posts something with which you don't agree. Consequently, I didn't find a lot of positive commentary about Sela compared to all the negative opinions regarding the staff turnover, not being added to the DCI, "why Hebrew anyway", and a bunch of seemingly personal attacks on the premise of the school. Still can't figure out that "sock puppet" absurdity but I'll save that for another day. Just know I'm not the sock puppet lol. Jeff, you can verify that if you like . I'm just a parent who met with the administration team at Sela for almost three hours and asked a ton of questions about the plan for the school. They answered all of them to the best of their ability and I was pleased with the responses. Sidenote - are there any parents on this forum whose children REALLY attend Sela? I'm more interested in YOUR comments versus these other naysayers.

I met with both Dr. Lody and Carrie during an open house and they both were very personable and honest about the challenges the school faced. It seems a bit unrealistic to believe a new school would not face challenges in leadership and losing teachers. I've done research on many DC schools and I'm sure I can find a parent, teacher or administrator that would voice concerns about even the "best" of schools. Judging by all of you who didn't get your first or 18th choice for schools (didn't get waitlisted either), to criticize a school trying to provide a quality education seems really unfair. Another sidenote - to the poster who mentioned 7 families entering the lottery for another school after having been at Sela...I didn't read a reason for the mass exodus. Or maybe I missed it? Care to share?

I am a parent who is less focused on the particular language and more excited about the opportunity my child will have to learn another language in general. I have quite a few friends whose children attend language immersion schools (not in the DC area) and I think it's great that a child can learn another language at an early age. I admit I was skeptical of Hebrew. At the end of the day, however, I was impressed with Sela's vision and plan for the future of the school. Can they predict everything will fall in place perfectly? No. I am ok with that though because I know there is a responsibility of parents to also be involved in their child's education. I watched the kids interact with their teachers in class. The kids were happy and singing in Hebrew. A diverse group of little people eager to learn is a plus in my book. Oh and that playground "issue" lol. We were told the land was approved for a playground right outside the school doors and it was in the works to be built. I'll see about finding a date for when they plan to break ground.

We also met with a few of the teachers who teach Hebrew. They talked about how the language is taught and its positive effects on a child's learning and development. Again, I'm sure you can say that about any language. And again, I'm ok with my child learning Hebrew so as long as she's getting a quality education. She could learn any language for that matter!

Can someone give me some background on the importance of DCI? Forgive my ignorance but I saw a lot of commentary about that and Sela presenting this idea as if it were set in stone versus there never being talks of it? I'm a little confused as to what happened/what was said?

Have a happy weekend!

Is it set in stone that Sela will or will not join DCI? We're at a DCI feeder, and it seems like they could have potential to be a good fit. It also seem like that decision could be a few years away given that their oldest class is maybe 2nd grade or so.

Sela should no more be a feeder than some other random charter. Hebrew is a non-starter and would just likely cause the school more money than it's worth to support such a self-limiting language. I hope SELA does well, but not at the expense of kids whom are already in feeder schools with viable language options. Sorry, but Hebrew just doesn't cut it. I think families would support Arabic, Russian and perhaps German. These are the languages most in demand behind Mandarin, Spanish and French. Hebrew doesn't come close.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why there is constant talk of Sela being a part of DCI. Obviously this is not set in stone, and it is not a subject that needs to be debated in public at this point If anyone has any actual information about discussions that have been had, that is one thing, but otherwise, why bother with this ridiculous debate over and over again.