As Gershon promised, there will be school on Erev Shavuot and Election Day. I've never heard a good explanation why either of those should be days off.
Teacher training is BEFORE school starts not in the middle of the year. & no more early dismissals for parent-teacher conferences either the day before or after.
All told its 178 school days which is more than any of the existing JDS's but still 2 days less than the public schools. We just need to put in 2 days of Chol Hamoed Succot & we'll be there!
Impressive that they are able to have more days while still keeping the costs way down. Hope they can keep it up!
Logging you in...
Sora · 673 weeks ago
get real #2 · 673 weeks ago
Speaking to many parents this weekend that have a child registered at He'Atid. They knew of some teachers interested in perhaps working there next year, but nearly to the teacher, they have chosen to stay put at their current yeshiva. I think the big issues that remain with He'Atid:
1. Who will be the teachers?
2. With paid consultant for this model being out in California, will there be a one or two year learning curve for the teachers to master this model?
3. Will this approach work for PK - 3rd or 4th grade - I have read some mixed results for middle school and great reports for high school, but not too much good stuff for early years. Hope I am wrong, as many, many people need this financial relief!!!
Proud Jew · 673 weeks ago
2. Maybe, but it will have nothing to do with heatid.
3. Every study i have seen shows zero to little impact for younger grades.
The heatid experiment should be interesting from a sociological perspective.
Jewess · 673 weeks ago
1) One of the teachers they hired had been trying for years already to get a job at any of the area day schools and she even has personal connections at one. Doesn't sound too promising.
2) There will for sure be a learning curve to master the model and for the school in general. It is Rabbi Gralla's first year in such a position. I have a feeling that he will not have the support of the other area principals to bounce ideas off of. Opening up 6 classes with 120 kids all at once, it should be expected that there will be bumps along the way. I just wonder if any issues that may arise will be poo pooed as " growing pains /learning curve" if in fact they are really a result of a failed model.
3) No study shows any results for the lower grades.
4) I'd also love to see their revised budget after their opening period and the first 6 months of school. They are running into so many unforseen costs right now and cash is flying out the door. Luckily they have 2 million seed money - but that will go very quickly since it is also being used to offset the true cost.
Jewess · 673 weeks ago
TheOracle · 673 weeks ago
Spetember: 15
October: 16
November: 20
December: 20
January: 18
February: 19
March: 16
April: 19
May: 20
June: 15
BPY has 174 days. What's the difference? He'Atid isn't going to have staff development (most people have days of continuing ed at work- I guess they don't want their staff learning and / or integrating with staff from the other schools), they cut two days from winter break (awesome move- all of the schools should do this), and is having school on New Year's Day (a national holiday- no bussing and I don't see how this benefits parents)
Yeshiva_Dad 69p · 673 weeks ago
Look at the top line - they have teacher training just not in the middle of the school year. It's done August 27-31.
Also school on New Years doesn't help parents but school on Christmas till 12 that requires a "special visitor" helps parents?
Jewess · 673 weeks ago
All the schools have teacher training / set up the week before school starts. I don't think that is an ample substitute for on-going professional development.
The bigger problem is that if the staff are really only being training on an entirely new model a week before the children start. How on earth will they be ready to start teaching them a day later?
Why are you so anti BPY's special visitors day - to the point that you don't think it constitutes a school day? He'Atid's new years day shouldn't count either since it ends at early. Give me a break!
Yeshiva_Dad 69p · 673 weeks ago
I'm not anti it at all. I think it's great. But it's not a school day either in terms of education or in terms of helping parents. It's similar some of the family events that some schools hold on Sundays.
More importantly, it's not being fair to say New Years doesn't help but a few hours on Christmas does.
realist · 673 weeks ago
Sara F. · 673 weeks ago
Miami Al · 673 weeks ago
Even if the blended learning does little to nothing for the education, 5% more class time should help. If you pick up a 5% boost from 5% more class time, and a 5% boost from the blended learning, that's a 10% material bump. If the school's first year "growing pains" causes a 10% penalty, it should be a wash.
I consider more school days to be helpful margin of error when worrying about whether they are having problems from the learning curve.
I would also guess that since blended learning starts small and grows over the years, it will have minimal impact on the education OR cost in the first few years, but more significant as older grades are added.
It seems like they are giving themselves some room for error, which is quite smart.
George · 673 weeks ago
The key is to start integrating this stuff early but slowly when it's not all that crucial and build up. My guess is that the Pre-K class won't look too different than any other school's pre-k. 1st grade may look a little different but it probably won't be a significant difference until 4th or 5th grade.
Michael · 673 weeks ago
get real #2 · 673 weeks ago
Every parent wants to save costs. Every parent wants more school days. However, results and quality of education are still HUGE discussion points. Knocking anyone with a different view is quite disturbing. Not that i know who these commentators on either side of the isle are, but hey, such is the nature of a blog.
realist · 672 weeks ago
I though the hype over enrollment was over. How desperate are these people to defend a school that hasn't evened opened its' doors yet!
Mark · 672 weeks ago
Zach · 672 weeks ago