Trying to Keep Religion Out of Charter School Classes
Enlargephoto by: Jenifer Whitmey
Eleanor Kolitz Hebrew Language Academy charter school, San Antonio, TX, October 14, 2013.
SAN ANTONIO — At the Eleanor Kolitz Hebrew Language Academy, a fifth-grade foreign-language class is taught entirely in Hebrew, with students shifting into English just long enough to translate words like “research” and “to overcome.” In middle school, these charter school students will take a class on Israeli culture. School officials say the class is in line with the state curriculum’s mandate to teach about the culture of the country where an instructed language is spoken.
The academy, which opened in August at the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Campus of the San Antonio Jewish Community, is the first Texas charter to offer Hebrew, and one of two charters awarded by the state in 2012 to open in a Jewish center. School officials have faced questions over their leasing arrangements and the populations they serve, but they say they are keeping religion out of the classroom and are focused on serving a diverse student body.
Last year, the campus housed a different Eleanor Kolitz Academy, a private Jewish day school. But in June the private school closed its doors. The new Kolitz Academy opened in the same space as a K-8 public charter with a $600,000 start-up grant from the Texas Education Agency. Enrollment increased to nearly 200 students from 80, with most students and staff
