Kehillah Jewish High School
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| Kehillah Jewish High School | |
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| Address | |
|---|---|
| 3900 Fabian Way Palo Alto, CA, USA |
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| Coordinates | 37°25′30″N 122°06′16″W / 37.4249°N 122.1045°WCoordinates: 37°25′30″N 122°06′16″W / 37.4249°N 122.1045°W |
| Information | |
| Type | Independent coeducational secondary |
| Established | 2000 |
| President | Wendy Harris |
| Headmistress | Lillian Howard |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Number of students | 125 |
| Campus | Suburban |
| Affiliation | Jewish |
| Website | www.kehillah.org |
Kehillah Jewish High School is an independent college preparatory high school located in Palo Alto, California. "Kehillah" is a Hebrew word meaning "community." The school is one of a series of pluralistic (community) Jewish day schools in the United States at the high school level founded within the past 12 years.
In the fall of 2005, the school moved from its original location in San Jose to its new campus at 3900 Fabian Way, Palo Alto, California.
Kehillah Jewish High School was founded in 2000 and opened in the fall of 2002 on the Blackford High School campus in San Jose with 32 9th grade students. Rabbi Reuven Greenvald joined Kehillah as its Head-of-School in the summer of 2004 and left in March 2007. He was replaced by Lillian Howard, who most recently served as the founding Head of School of the Shoshana S. Cardin School in Baltimore, Maryland.
The school is a recipient of grants by the Levine-Lent Family Foundation, Leonard and Vivian Lehmann, The Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, The Peninsula, Marin, and Sonoma Counties,[1] and the Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley.[2]
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[edit] Campus
The new 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2) campus at 3900 Fabian Way in Palo Alto, California was completed for the 2005–2006 academic year. It is situated across the street from the recently opened Taube-Koret Campus for Jewish Life,[3] a major new development for the Palo Alto JCC and the senior home. The facility was originally constructed in 1997, and was extensively remodeled in 2005. The building includes 27 classrooms, four break-out and tutorial rooms, high-end physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science laboratories, music and art rooms, a photo lab, a library and assembly space, student and faculty work and meeting spaces, faculty and administrative office clusters, and a beit-midrash for tefillah (prayer) and chavrutah study. Also, as of 2007, the weight room has opened and students are allowed outside during their free periods. Each teaching space is equipped with extensive electronic media and SMARTBoard technology.
[edit] Student life
Student life at Kehillah is found in athletics, publications, clubs, and committees. Many student activities are organized by the Director of Student Life. The sports program has expanded to include Boys' and Girls Basketball, Girls' Volleyball, Soccer, Coed Tennis, and Coed Dance. As of the 2008–2009 school year, the basketball, soccer, and volleyball teams play in the Private School Athletic League (PSAL).
Annual trips give students in each grade opportunities to socialize, learn outside the classroom, and participate in service projects. During the 2007–2008 school year the 9th graders travelled to the Brandeis-Bardin Institute in Simi Valley, California, the 10th graders went to San Diego, California to help with relief from the October 2007 California wildfires, the 11th graders went to Waveland, Mississippi to assist in rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina, and the 12th graders spent 3 weeks in Israel.
The school produces five theatrical productions annually. During the 2007–2008 school year, the theatrical season included "The Zoo Story" by Edward Albee, "Proof" by David Auburn, the musical "Pippin", William Shakespeare's "The Tempest", George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion", and "The Laramie Project" by Moisés Kaufman. The plays are sometimes directed or co-directed by students.
Other extracurricular activities include Yearbook, Chess Club, Speech & Debate, Kehillah News Magazine Club, Chamber Musicians Club, Student Government, Israel Club, "Mish Mosh" (the school's improvisational comedy troupe), and Students Taking Action Now: Darfur. Kehillah's Jewish High School Jam Band won the 2007 KFOX "School of Rock" radio competition. "Joe", a band that included two students from Kehillah, also won a KFOX award; they won the award for best under 18 band. As of 2009[update], Kehillah has a Dance Team that meets twice a week at the JCC across the street as well as a environmental club named WATER (We Always Treat Earth Right).
In 2007, the school's first-ever homecoming event, dance, and spirit week took place in Mid-December.
[edit] Academics
Kehillah has a dual curriculum combining Jewish Studies and General Studies, taught by sixteen faculty members.
[edit] Physical education and athletics
Although Kehillah does not have a standard P.E. program, it does have many options for students to earn their P.E. credit requirement of two semesters. A Weight Training class in the school year of 2008–2009 replaced the Krav Maga class of previous years, and a Yoga class are offered as electives. Students can also participate in the athletic program to get their P.E. requirement. Currently, KJHS offers five varsity sports: boys' basketball, girls' basketball, girls' volleyball, co-ed soccer, and co-ed tennis.
Kehillah Jewish High School also has a classroom-sized gym, on occasion opened during students' free blocks, but mainly used for the Weight Training class.
[edit] Tuition
Kehillah’s Board of Directors has set tuition for the 2008–2009 school year. Tuition for 2008–2009 is $27,600. Each entering student receives a $3,000 need-blind subsidy (meaning a net tuition of $24,600) from the Levine-Lent Family Foundation. The $3,000 subsidy, guaranteed for each of the student’s four years at KJHS, is designed to encourage families to join the growing Kehillah community in these initial “pioneering” years. In addition, a student activities fee of $1,600 covers extracurricular activities and most class trips. An additional fee of $50 is payable to the Kehillah Parents' Association. Kehillah awards about 22% of its total gross tuition back to families in the form of needs-based financial aid.
[edit] Post-graduation
Almost all students continue to a 4-year college (over 99%). Some students defer for a year and study or travel in Israel for a year. Students from Kehillah typically go on to attend a range of colleges, including Ivy League universities, the University of California, and other schools.[4]
[edit] Technology
Kehillah places an emphasis on technology in the classroom. Each classroom has a digital projector installed projecting onto a SMARTBoard.
The school building is covered in a wireless network for student and faculty use. Kehillah has a Computer Lab with nearly ten working, networked, desktop computers.
[edit] Jewish Community Center
The Oshman Family Jewish Community Center (formerly Albert L. Schultz JCC) is across the street from Kehillah Jewish High School as a part of the Taube-Korret Campus for Jewish Life. It boasts both indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a gymnasium, a state-of-the-art fitness center, and many other things to which students from the school now have access.
