A local rabbi hopes to establish California’s first Hebrew language charter school in the Santa Clarita Valley.

If approved by the Hart district during the Jan. 20 board meeting, the Albert Einstein Academy for Letters, Arts and Sciences would be a college preparatory school planned for a fall 2010 opening, Rabbi Mark Blazer of Temple Beth Ami in Newhall said.

The public charter school would be open to everyone and students would not have to be Jewish to enroll, he said. The school would not have a religious base, he said.

In its first year, Blazer estimates the school would have 75 students in each seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade class. Each year, the school would add a grade until it becomes a 7-12 school, he said.

Academy leaders are still looking for a place to house the academy for the upcoming year.

At full capacity, the school would hold 450 students, he said.

“We have not had a problem getting interest from parents,” Blazer said.

Meeting a need
Local children are able to learn Hebrew at Jewish congregations, but, for Blazer, meeting two or three times a week is not enough.

“There’s so much to teach,” Blazer said.

Having a Hebrew language charter school would allow students to learn Hebrew every day while studying in an intensive environment that prepares them for college and a life beyond school, he said.

Mindy Bish hopes to enroll her 13-year-old seventh-grader, currently attending the private school Pinecrest, in the Albert Einstein Academy next year.

With ongoing budget cuts, Bish worries that increased class sizes would impact her son’s education if he enrolled at a public school.

She enjoys the small-school environment her son has at Pinecrest.

Yet, Bish, who is a member of Temple Beth Ami, wants her son to have a strong academic program that will teach him Hebrew.

“They’ll keep him on the high academic level that he’s already started at Pinecrest,” she said.

Building a first
Blazer believes the school would benefit the William S. Hart Union High School District as it would draw students from beyond the Santa Clarita Valley because of how unique the program is.

“Each student that comes here is a benefit that we wouldn’t otherwise had,” Blazer said.

Even before its approval, the charter school has received a $50,000 grant for its efforts.

Hebrew language charter schools have already been established in New York and Florida, he said.

The school has hired Edward Gika as its founding principal. Gika served as an administrator at Montclair College Preparatory School in Van Nuys for 20 years and has been a faculty member at Pierce College for nearly 15 years, Blazer said.

Gika is looking forward to overseeing a unique school that has a college prep curriculum with a private school feel. Offering languages like Hebrew, Arabic, Greek and Latin will create a strong educational foundation for students in the future, he said.

“I think that charter schools are really the way of the future and I think it’s going to be a special place,” he said.

Blazer hopes the academy can become a “badge of pride” for the Hart district.

“We want our district to be proud of our school,” he said.

Vicki Engbrecht, assistant superintendent of educational services for the Hart district, did not want to comment about the academy until the board’s decision on Jan. 20.

The Hart district has charters with three other schools, Mission View and Opportunities for Learning, independent study programs and Santa Clarita Valley International School, a K-8 charter school.

For the time being, Blazer said parents can submit applications to enroll at the academy.

“This is a really big step. It took a lot of work,” he said.