The Albert Einstein Academy has faced a series of obstacles since leaders first proposed the idea of a Hebrew-language charter school in the Santa Clarita Valley.

There was initial opposition from some William S. Hart Union High School District board members over the issue of separating church and state.

When the Hart district board approved the one-of-a-kind school’s charter after a delay, Einstein Academy creators had to go on a search for a place to house the academy.

They soon found a location on Kelly Johnson Parkway, and just recently cleared one of the final hurdles to winning city approval for the state’s first Hebrew-language charter school in a roughly 18,000-square foot building once occupied by a masonry company.

On Aug. 30, the Albert Einstein Academy for Letters, Arts and Sciences will open its doors for the first time and kick off its inaugural school year with 190 seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders and 15 teachers, said Mark Blazer, the academy’s executive director.

The final steps
Construction crews are now working around the clock to transform the building’s offices and conference rooms into classrooms and computer labs. The academy is already equipped with modern technology and security cameras from the previous owners.

“It just came up at the right time,” Blazer said. “It’s the perfect space for us.”

Principal Edward Gika has enjoyed shaping the school and hiring the faculty, not to mention figuring out what colors to paint the walls and which furniture to buy.

The school will be surrounded by a mix of businesses, North Park Community Church and Trinity Classical Academy.
Inside, it will have 10 classrooms, with an additional eight to be constructed in time for the 2011-12 school year, Blazer said.

Plans also call for computer labs and space for art and music programs.

The additional classrooms will come with a 5,000-square-foot expansion as school leaders plan to add a high school grade annually until the grades 7-12 school serves 450 students by the 2013-14 school year.

Outside, students will have access to two basketball courts, two volleyball courts and two tennis courts on the nearly four acres of paved lots, Blazer said.

“It’s a pretty nice building to go to high school in,” Blazer said.

The school
School leaders describe Einstein Academy as the best offered by both public and private educations, giving students a college-preparatory education filled with electives like sports, art, language and music.

Class sizes will consist, at most, of 25 students.

“It’s not a school,” Blazer said. “It’s a community.”

The school will offer Hebrew, Spanish, Arabic, Greek and Latin language classes. Japanese and Mandarin classes are planned for the future.

“The schools out here are great,” Blazer said. “We’re just offering another option.”

About 10 percent of the student body will come from outside the Santa Clarita Valley, mainly the San Fernando Valley, he said.

The school is currently buying buses to transport the out-of-the-area students to Einstein Academy.

Not done yet
Locally, school leaders are planning to submit a charter to one of the four elementary school districts in the Santa Clarita Valley so that the Einstein Academy can become a K-12 charter school, Blazer said.

But school leaders want to open multiple Einstein Academies in California.

The Einstein Academy plans to present its charter to the Los Angeles Unified School District and Ventura Unified School District by the end of the year, Blazer said.

“We want to open up from San Diego all the way up to Ventura County,” Gika said. “The idea would be the Albert Einstein schools.”

Gika doesn’t rule out going international in the next 15 years.

“There are other countries that would just love this kind of American education,” he said.