Students C.J. Apel, 15, of Farmington Hills, Daniel Cohen Arcamore, 17, of West
Bloomfield and Rena Bergman, 16, of Southfield test out the new desks.

Lauren Kepes, 16, Bloomfield Hills and Rena Bergman check out the new lockers.

Meeting The Challenge

Frankel Jewish
Academy moves
to new permanent
facility within JCC.

Stories by Diana Lieberman
Photos by Angie Baan

T

he Jean and Samuel Frankel
Jewish Academy, which began life
in the early 1990s as a series of
exploratory meetings in living rooms and
basements, opens its eighth academic year
Aug. 27 with shiny new facilities.
And, most importantly, the FJA wel-
comes at least 224 new and
returning students in grades
9-12.
They will go to school
on the top floor of the
Jewish Community Center
of Metropolitan Detroit's D.
Dan and Betty Kahn Building in West
Bloomfield. However, any resemblance
between these new digs and the old JCC is
purely coincidental.
A successful $8.5 million capital cam-
paign, kicked off by a $2 million chal-
lenge grant from the Frankel family, has
financed a 50,000-square-foot modern
school. Included are a state-of-the-art sci-

ence suite, glass-enclosed media center,
a performing arts studio, a chapel, class-
rooms, offices, and study and lounge areas.
Architects for the project were Joel
Smith of Neumann Smith and Associates,
in Southfield and Stuart Fine of Stuart J.
Fine and Associates in West Bloomfield.
Construction management was pro-
vided by the Birmingham-based Sachse
Construction and Development Corp.

"They really paid attention to
what kids want."

— Student Rena Bergman

"Although this gives us a new face
and provides a physical plant, our focus
remains the same — to provide the
highest standards in Judaic and secu-
lar academic curriculum, with Judaism
integral to everything we do;' said Rabbi
Lee Buckman, who has served as head of
school since the Academy's first days.

Expanded Horizons
Since 2000, the FJA had been located
inside the West Bloomfield JCC, beginning
in the space now known as the Sarah and
Irving Pitt Child Development Center and
later in modules next to the main building...
Although areas had been renovated for the
school's use, facilities were still limited in
size and flexibility
"The new building is the old building
— on steroids:' said Patti Shayne, the
school's director of information technol-
ogy.
Among the school's showplaces is a
58,000-square-foot science suite. The suite
comprises four multidisciplinary class-
rooms, each accommodating 20 students,
along with a fully equipped prep room.
So far, three rooms at the FJA provide
interactive white boards; plans are for five
by the end of the school year. Also known
as smartboards, these are surfaces that
connect to and display Internet pages.
These teaching aids can be written on,

Frankel on page 14

August 23 2007

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