Florida Schools get Accredited

Lubavitch.com

Representatives of two prestigious education accreditation programs visited two Chabad Florida schools last week. Representing the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools was a former superintendent of Miami-Dade County.

Rabbi Nochem Kaplan of the Merkos National Accreditation Board, and by extension the National Council for Private School Accreditation, NCPSA, also came to review the schools.

The Hebrew Academy Community School in Margate received a five-year continuation of their status as a SACS – CASI – COJE quality school. Rabbi and Mrs. Yossi and Rivkah Denberg, principals of the school, are veterans of the accreditation process. The Hebrew Academy was the first Chabad school to have achieved joint accreditation five years ago.

Dr. George M. Koonce Jr. made the exit presentation on behalf of the group. He congratulated the administration; the faculty and a large group of assembled parents for cooperatively maintaining the high standards of the school’s academic and social curriculum.

The South Florida Jewish Academy, a Coconut Creek school specifically for children with special needs will receive accreditation for the first time. SACS chair, Dr. Eveleen Lorton, stated that she had never seen a more dedicated staff or a group of children so highly focused.

Rabbi Kaplan hopes that the school will be a prototype for a national network of special needs schools.

Rabbi Kaplan who visited the school previously a number of times said that this school must be a prototype for a nationwide network of special education opportunities for Jewish children. Rabbi Yossi and Baila Gansburg, the executive and educational directors respectively, have demonstrated, he said, “that it is possible to leave No Jewish Child behind. They have created an educational environment where all children learn, optimally.”