26 August 22 • 2019
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whose bus schedules are dictated by the 
needs of an entire school district, FJA, 
with no bus service, is freed from these 
constraints. 
Kantor added that the later start allows 
for room in a student’
s schedule for 
more electives and advanced placement 
coursework throughout the day. More 
than 90 students, including freshman, 
enroll in AP courses, thus allowing 
them to better pursue their passions and 
sample what learning will be like at the 
college level, Kantor said.

HILLEL DAY SCHOOL
Matching the renovations in recent years 
on other parts of the school, Hillel Day 
School in Farmington Hills on Aug. 27 
will hold a grand opening and introduce 
the community to its new 6,000-square-
foot early childhood center. The school’
s 
ECC started 10 years ago with 69 stu-
dents. This year, it welcomes 173 stu-
dents. The K-8 program will have 401 
students. 
“We offer a values-based program 
that builds self-confidence in young 
children, and allows children to be 
inquisitive, guided by experienced staff 
that have been with us for 10 years,
” said 
Hillel Director of Early Education Robin 
Pappas. 
“
Additionally, they are integrated into 
the larger Hillel community from the 
start. When you offer high-quality pro-
gramming, it serves a purpose and fills 
a niche that young Jewish parents are 
looking for. We give the Jewish and edu-
cational foundation that sets up young 
children as lifelong learners. That’
s why 
we’
re so excited to have more space now 
to offer Hillel’
s program to more fami-
lies.
” 
At the end of the last school year, 
ECC teachers attended a seminar in 
Italy to learn how to tap into the innate 
knowledge-seeking, resilient qualities of 

children to learn from nature and the 
world around them. 
Other teachers were trained in 
“Responsive Classroom” methodologies 
to sharpen skills in creating a better 
classroom environment. 
“Responsive Classroom will pro-
vide a community-based approach to 
social-emotional learning across our 
school, ultimately building even stronger 
student-teacher relationships, improving 
student engagement and motivation, 
and providing tools and strategies to 
enhance students’
 abilities to critically 
solve problems, effectively collaborate 
and persevere through challenges,
” said 
Melissa Michaelson, principal of Hillel 
Day School.
After the departure of Head of 
School Steve Freedman, following 16 
years at his post, the school welcomes 
Nathan “Naty” Katz as its interim head 
administrator. Katz served as the exec-
utive director and head of school from 
2008 to 2018 at Maimonides School in 
Brookline, Mass., a preschool through 
12th grade Jewish day school with 500 
students. 

YESHIVAH BETH YEHUDAH
The area’
s largest Jewish day school, with 
a combined 2019-2020 student body of 
1,050 children from preschool to high 
school, awaits the completion of its new 
girls’
 Bais Yaakov K-8 building by spring 
of 2020. The first floor of the building 
will be 53,333 square feet (an increase 
from the current 45,875 square feet). The 
building will stretch from 10 Mile Road 
to I-696. The addition of a second story 
of about 35,000 square feet will bring the 
total square footage to approximately 
90,000.
The building will include 24 class-
rooms, two cafeterias (one for ele-
mentary and one for middle school), a 
gymnasium, a library, computer labs and 
a science lab. Eighty-six parking spaces 
will be constructed along the Church 
Road side of the building.
The site plan also says Yeshiva Beth 
Yehudah may build a third-floor addi-
tion after five to 10 years.
Bais Yaakov students for at least the 
first half of the school year will continue 
to attend classes at the Glenn Schoenhals 
school, a former Southfield public ele-

mentary school on Lincoln Road that 
closed in 2016. Yeshiva Beth Yehudah 
used the Schoenhals facility to house 
its boys’
 school during construction 
of its new building, which opened in 
September 2017.
“
As construction projects go, delays 
like this are expected,
” said YBY Dean 
Rabbi Yitzchok Grossbard. “We were 
very fortunate to have available to us 
the Schoenhals school and our girls are 
faring well there. We were lucky it is only 
a block away from our main campus 
and that we did not have to utilize trailer 
classrooms as we await the opening of 
our new girls’
 school.
”

FARBER HEBREW DAY SCHOOL
This year, Farber Hebrew Day School 
enters year two of a three-year accred-
itation process with the Independent 
School Association of the Central States 
(ISACS). If it is approved in the 2020-
2021 academic year, it will join the ranks 
with other ISACS-accredited Jewish day 
schools such as Hillel and Frankel Jewish 
Academy. 
ISACS accreditation standards are 
developed for independent and private, 
not public schools. The process involves 
a peer review conducted by those who 
understand the unique qualities of each 
independent school and the contribu-
tions made by faculty and administra-
tors. 
Unlike public schools, where school 
improvement is measured by test scores, 
the school’
s overall process involving 
childhood growth and learning is exam-
ined instead. 
Head of school Rabbi Scot Berman 
explained that the ISACS accreditation 
process is an undertaking that compels 
all members of the school communi-
ty — from faculty and staff to students, 
parents and alumni — to be reflective 
on the practice of teaching to best deter-

back to school

FJA students work 

on a STEM project.

Hillel student Jessica Lovy, seventh grade, 

shows off basil plants in the greenhouse.

The Yeshivah Beth Yehudah girls K-8 building, scheduled for opening in spring 2020 

on the Nancy Grosfeld Beth Jacob Campus

continued from page 24

