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10 Detroit Jewish News

Featuring Andersen Windows

Licensed & Insured

Aside from getting more space to
learn in their Oak Park building, the
girl's side of Yeshiva Beth Yehtidah
this year began an educational pro-
gram for their high school kids that
helped them learn about life outside
the classroom.
"We had a specialist come in to work
with students on relationship skills: how
they pick friends, communication skills
and conflict resolution with parents and
siblings," said Rabbi Nathaniel Lauer,
education director for the 450-student
school. "We're trying to teach the corn-
plete student: spiritually, intellectually,
emotionally and physically:"
This school year was the first for
Beth Jacob's computer lab. Students
learn typing basics in seventh through
ninth grades, move up to Microsoft
Access, a database program, in the 11th
grade and Adobe PageMaker in 12th
grade. "The seniors are producing the
yearbook in-house," Lauer said.
The juniors' experience with a data-
base program has allowed them to set
the logistical planning for this
November's International Bais Yakov
Convention, which will bring 400-500
educators and students to the campus
in Oak Park.
"Five years ago, when we hosted
last, there were delegates from 37
schools," Lauer said. "Last year in
Toronto, 57 delegations were there and
we are planning on at least that many."
For Beth Jacob, fulfilling the physi-
cal education goals for its students has
been a tougher task.
The girls have been using the
Jimmy Prentis Morris Building of the
Jewish Community Center, a couple of
blocks from the school building, to
fulfill their gym and swim require-
ments for graduation.
The space being created in the
school by the preschool kids moving to
the new Beth Yehudah building in
Southfield is already earmarked for
both spiritual and physical activities.
Currently, "we teach gym classes to
the limits of what we can do," Lauer
said, which includes holding gym
classes for the middle school and high
school girls on Sundays when the
lunchroom isn't in use.

Hillel Day School

The administration will be changing
some next year, when headmaster
Mark Smiley returns from his one-
year sabbatical in Israel.
"He recharged his batteries, which is
what a sabbaricil is supposed to do."

said Development Director Marianne
Bloomberg. "He got to live in Israel,
be a student and watch the educational
process through his daughter. He's
psyched to be coming baCk."
The real administrative change will
happen by the start of the 2000-2001
school year, when Hillel will have five
principals — three for general studies,
kindergarten through second grade,
third grade through fifth, and sixth
grade through eighth; and two for
Judaic studies, kindergarten through
fifth grade, and sixth grade through
eighth.
The Conservative school, based in
Farmington Hills, added a new two-
story wing, chapel and technology cen-
ter three years ago, a massive renova-
tion driven by its thriving enrollment,
which has doubled to 720 over the
past 10 years.
"We have waiting lists for kinder-
garten and the first grade, which is
really the last time that a student can
come in without being too far
behind," said Rochelle Iczkovitz, the
school's principal.
This fall, Hillel will operate three
full kindergartens and five full first-
grade classes, with the possibility of a
sixth class opening.
Before then, the school expects to
hire a director of admissions and refine
its marketing and recruitment efforts.
Iczkovitz said the planned start of
the new Jewish day high school, the
Jewish Academy of Metropolitan
Detroit, won't lead Hillel to change its
curriculum. The school, she said, will <
be "just another option" for Hillel
graduates. "The curriculum has always
done what its had to do and that's for
the students to be ready to go to any
high school — public or private. I
don't know if the educational process
has changed, but adding programs
enhanced what it was."

Community-wide

Complementing the efforts of the indi-
vidual schools, the Agency for Jewish
Education of Metropolitan Detroit has
concentrated on working with schools
in Southfield to get special education
services delivered to those students
who need it at Akiva, Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah and Yeshivas Darchei Torah,
another area day school.
"Traditionally, that's where our
focus has been, with day 'schools,"
said Judah Isaacs, the recently
appointed head of AJE. "We also had
a specialist on kids with disabilities
from Georgetown University work
with the educators on that.

