(JTA) — A Hebrew-language charter school was approved by a California school board.
The William S. Hart Union High School District in the Santa Clarita Valley on March 19 unanimously approved the Albert Einstein Academy for Letters, Arts and Sciences. The school is scheduled to open in fall 2010, according to the Los Angeles Times. The school’s stated mission is to prepare students for college with an emphasis on multiple languages, as well as communication and critical thinking, the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles reported.
After concerns that making the study of Hebrew compulsory would render the school a religious academy, the school agreed that Hebrew would not be compulsory and that students could choose to study Hebrew, Arabic or Spanish for four years, and then study a second language.
The school plans to open with 225 students in grades 7 through 9 and then add a grade each year until it reaches 450 students in grades 7 through 12.
