The nearly 700 students who attend Donna Klein Jewish Academy are getting a college-prep liberal arts education, along with Judaic studies. But they are also part of a leadership showcase for the Franklin Covey “Leader in Me” curriculum.
Walking through the halls, you see artwork illustrating inspirational quotations – “Think Win Win -Everyone can win;” “Seek first to understand, then to be understood – Listen before you talk” – all based on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
DKJA is the only K-12 Jewish community day school in the country to implement the program, said Jane Neubauer Black, the school’s director of communications. The program, developed by the Franklin Covey organization, aims to develop students’ initiative, creativity, teamwork and other problem-solving skills.
The school, which opened in 1979 as the South County Jewish Community Day School in space at Temple Beth El, serves students in junior kindergarten through 12th grade. It is housed on the campus of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, off Glades Road east of U.S. 441. Students come from all branches of Judaism.
Prayer and Judaic studies are part of every day. Hebrew is taught in all grades, though students who are new to the school need not have a background in it. (Spanish is also offered in grades 9-12). Eighth- and 12-graders take trips to Israel.
Jewish history, values and tradition are woven into the academic lessons where appropriate.
“We do a lot of integration,” Black said.
That is true of all the school’s programs, including arts and technology.
Students have planted a vegetable garden this year, reinforcing the idea that we are all responsible for the Earth. Teachers are designing QR codes for each plant, so students can zap them with their smartphones and learn all about each one, Black said.
DKJA infuses technology into the classrooms with smartboards and some online textbooks. Students at its Claire and Emanuel G. Rosenblatt High School have a Mac lab.
Drama and art are not electives, but part of the regular curriculum. Students were auditioning last week for the production of Peter Pan in the spring. A “Meet the Masters” art appreciation program that also involves parents teaches deep lessons on particular artists.
DKJA also offers competitive sports as a member of the Florida High School Athletic Association, including baseball, basketball, co-ed cross-country, flag football, soccer, softball, tennis, golf and volleyball.
Students are mostly from the local area, from Boynton Beach to Coral Springs. The school offers some bus service.
The school’s junior kindergarten is a different curriculum than pre-kindergarten for 4-year-olds. It’s aimed at children whose birthdays just miss the kindergarten cutoff, or who need more time before entering kindergarten. The program will have about 14 openings in the fall.
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- CHARLENE PACENTI
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The Palm Beach County School District is closing schools early on Oct. 25 and all day on Oct. 26 due to the expectation of high winds and rain from Hurricane Sandy. Here is the news release from the district:
Due to Hurricane Sandy, all Palm Beach County public schools will release students three hours early on Thursday, with no after school or evening activities, and all schools will be closed on Friday. Parents should note that students will be dropped off at their bus stops three hours earlier than normal on Thursday. School officials say their decisions are based on National Weather Service forecasts, which indicate that on Thursday afternoon, sustained winds are expected to reach 25 to 35 miles per hour with gusts up to 50 miles per hour late in the day. On Friday, the National Weather Service forecasts indicate sustained winds are expected to reach 35 to 45 miles per hour along coast with gusts to up 60 miles per hour. School officials say, as a safety precaution, they plan to avoid operating school buses if sustained winds are forecast to exceed 35 miles per hour, as student and staff safety is their highest priority. While the National Weather Service says the storm will remain well off shore as it passes Palm Beach County, it is forecasting 1 to 3 inches of rain Thursday and Friday.
Due to Hurricane Sandy, all Palm Beach County public schools will release students three hours early on Thursday, with no after school or evening activities, and all schools will be closed on Friday.
Parents should note that students will be dropped off at their bus stops three hours earlier than normal on Thursday.
School officials say their decisions are based on National Weather Service forecasts, which indicate that on Thursday afternoon, sustained winds are expected to reach 25 to 35 miles per hour with gusts up to 50 miles per hour late in the day.
On Friday, the National Weather Service forecasts indicate sustained winds are expected to reach 35 to 45 miles per hour along coast with gusts to up 60 miles per hour.
School officials say, as a safety precaution, they plan to avoid operating school buses if sustained winds are forecast to exceed 35 miles per hour, as student and staff safety is their highest priority.
While the National Weather Service says the storm will remain well off shore as it passes Palm Beach County, it is forecasting 1 to 3 inches of rain Thursday and Friday.
The forecast calls for a clearer day on Saturday, so maybe sports games and all the planned weekend Halloween activities will be OK. Sugar Sand Park moved Wednesday night’s Shriek Week activities indoors.
If you have plans to attend any events in the next couple of days, do call ahead to check for any changes.
If you need child care on Friday, the city is having its GAP program. Call 561-393-7807 for more info or follow Boca Raton Community Centers/Camps on Facebook.
Stay dry.
A recent Soundsation rehearsal.
Among the many great arts programs around Boca Raton, there is only one Glee-style show choir: Soundsation at Olympic Heights Community High School.
The 27-member ensemble is the only nationally competitive show choir in all of South Florida. Soundsation will open for Amber Leigh to kick off the Meet Me on the Promenade event Oct. 26 in Downtown Boca.
It will be one of the group’s many shows this year, featuring singing, dancing, glitzy costumes and a high-tech set.
Students audition to get into the show choir – or one of the school’s three other choruses. An 11-piece band joins them for some performances. (Olympic Heights also has a marching band, a jazz band, concert band, color guard and a theater program).
Brad Lister, in his eighth year at Olympic Heights, is the school’s director of vocal music and chair of the Performing and Fine Arts Department. (He is also an opera singer).
His choirs frequently perform throughout Florida, including at EPCOT. They have twice sung back-up for Kenny Rogers.
Show choir is not as popular in Florida, as in some other places, like the Midwest. The popularity of the Glee TV show has not brought more kids to it, Lister said, but “It makes it more socially acceptable for kids to be a part of it.”
It’s a big accomplishment to be able to sing well and dance to complicated choreography at the same time, Lister said, noting that many of the students also earn “superior” ratings in concert choir.
But it’s not all about singing and dancing when it comes to the academic benefits of performing arts.
Students gain confidence and self-esteem, performing in front of thousands of people. They learn time-management skills. Besides spending hours a week on choir rehearsals, many students also play a sport or participate in academic competitions. (Lister also coaches swimming.)
And to participate, they have to keep their grades up.
The parents are involved, too, building sets, altering costumes, bringing over meals during rehearsals – and raising money.
Lister said he figures Soundsation costs about $1,200 a student.
Parents organize candy sales, car washes and more to raise the money for costumes, travel to competitions and to pay the professional choreographer: Rob DiComandrea of New York, who has had an extensive stage career, and has done choreograhpy for musicals, commercials and theme parks.
Roseann Vineberg, whose daughter, Samantha, is student president of the choral department, said Soundsation is a great experience in team work.
“They’re always there for one another,” she said. “They push one another to do better.”
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Soundsation will be the first act for the Meet Me on the Promenade event in Downtown Boca at 6 p.m. Oct. 26, opening for Amber Leigh. (Meet Me on the Promenade continues Oct. 27 with a full day of family-friendly activities. Get details at DowntownBoca.org.)
Olympic Heights Community High School is at 20101 Lyons Rd. It offers “choice” programs in early childhood teacher education; engineering and technology; finance; and tourism, hospitality and resort management. - CHARLENE PACENTI
Palm Beach County public schools are opening for students, and private schools are getting back into the groove over the next couple of weeks.
What’s new: You can now follow the Palm Beach County School District on Facebook and Twitter @PBCSD.
A new charter school is opening in Boca Raton. Read about it in the blog.
Schools are moving toward national “common core” standards. There’s a guide for parents at the school district website.
Helpful links, etc.:
Where to find your bus stop.
School bus dispatch number for Boca Raton: 561-368-1522
School breakfast & lunch menus.
Make sure your child’s backpack isn’t too heavy and is packed properly. Get some guidelines from a pediatrician in the blog.
Find tips for giving preschoolers the social-emotional skills they need in 3-Minute Guru.
School calendar.
Coming up:
The Palm Beach County School Board is holding its Aug. 22 meeting at Lynn University, the site of the last presidential debate this fall. They’ll be talking about education’s role in the political system.
Enjoy the day! And tell us how it went in the comments – tears, cheers and all.
The Somerset Academy chain of charter schools is opening an elementary campus in Boca Raton this month.
The school, which is leasing space from Temple Beth El at 333 SW Fourth Ave., aims to enroll 200 students in prekindergarten (age 4) through fifth grade for the upcoming school year.
It will be Boca Raton’s second charter school. The Boca Raton Charter School, which opened in 2006, offers the rigorous International Baccalaureate program for the elementary years. Charter schools are public schools, run with public money – so no tuition for parents (except for pre-k). But they are managed independently with little oversight from the school district.
Somerset Boca’s principal, Bonnie May, told BocaParent she aims to create a family atmosphere at the school, which will be small enough for her to know the parents and all the kids’ names.
Some of the parents inquiring about Somerset say their children are getting lost in the big public elementary schools, where enrollment has swelled in recent years. Others, hit hard by the economy, are finding they can no longer afford private school.
“We are that middle ground,” May said.
She has worked for Somerset schools for 10 years and said parent involvement is a big part of its culture: “We want them here on campus.”
In fact, families will be required to put in volunteer hours.
Parents will also have a say in what classes are offered. One Somerset school in another community offers Mandarin language classes, after parents asked for it.
May, who previously served as an administrator at the Chapel Trail campus in Pembroke Pines, said she will emphasize science. Students from pre-k and up will do science labs as part of the “specials” schedule, with art, music and PE. A former science teacher, May said the hands-on lessons are exciting and fun for younger kids, but are often set aside because standardized tests focus on reading and math.
Charter school students must take the FCAT, as all public school students do. (To see how the Somerset schools in Miami-Dade and Broward did this year, check the database at MiamiHerald.com. Most traditional public schools in Boca held onto their ‘A’ ratings this year. Get their scores here.)
Somerset runs about 30 schools, most of them in Florida, where the first opened in 1997. They are managed by Academica, Florida’s largest charter-school management company. (Read more about Academica at MiamiHerald.com.)
The Boca campus was initially slated for Boynton Beach, where Somerset is planning to build a middle and high school. (Read more about that at The Palm Beach Post.)
But when managers found the location in Boca, they decided to put it here. Administrators are busy installing computers and smartboards, outfitting the library and equipping 12 classrooms in space that once housed the temple’s preschool. (The preschool moved to Beth El’s new facility at Yamato Road and State Road 441 a few years ago.)
The Ben Gamla Hebrew charter schools had previously planned to move in to the space, but that didn’t pan out. Sea Star Initiative, a Waldorf school that is expanding its grades, will also occupy some of the temple’s classrooms.
Somerset registration process
Open enrollment is going on through Aug. 1. A lottery system may be used later to fill the last remaining seats if necessary. How many classes are offered for each grade will depend on demand, May said.
Registration packets can be picked up at the school: 3 to 6 p.m. July 16, and 9 a.m. to noon on July 18 and 19.
Parents are urged to register as soon as possible.
An informational meeting is scheduled for 6:30-7:30 p.m. July 18 at the school.
To learn more
