Ben Gamla Charter School

The Ben Gamla Charter School is an English-Hebrew charter school, the first of its kind in the U.S., located in Hollywood, Florida. It opened August 20, 2007, with approximately 400 enrolled students from kindergarten through eighth grade, though the Ben Gamla system has expanded to 5 campuses in South Florida in both the Ben Gamla Charter Schools, as well as the Ben Gamla Preparatory Academy. The entire Ben Gamla system currently enrolls students from grades K-12 across all 5 campuses, with a total enrollment of about 2,000 students. Of the five total schools in the Ben Gamla system, three schools are in Broward County, one is in Miami-Dade County and one is in Palm Beach County. The school's director is an Orthodox rabbi and at least 50% of the students accepted to the school are Jewish. The name of the school is taken from an Israelite high priest, known in the Talmud for his campaign to establish yeshivas throughout Judaea.

Controversy

On August 23, 2007, the Broward County school board ordered the school to suspend its Hebrew classes because the curriculum referred to a website that discussed religion. Supporters of the Hebrew classes compare the program to hundreds of other dual-language schools in the United States According to an article in The New York Times, "Opponents say it is impossible to teach Hebrew – and aspects of Jewish culture – outside a religious context, and that Ben Gamla, billed as the nation's first Hebrew-English charter school, violates one of its paramount legal and political boundaries." Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League said of the school, "[c]harter schools have greater autonomy than a school being run by the Board of Education. Let’s give it a shot, but let’s watch it very, very carefully." == Campuses ==

Campuses

Ben Gamla currently has expanded to include multiple campuses in the split between the Ben Gamla Charter Schools (grades K–8) and the Ben Gamla Preparatory Academy Charter Schools (grades 6–12). In total, the entire system has 4 campuses serving about 1,800 students in total . The known grades for each school are below: • 5001 (BG Charter North K-5): A (2014–2015) • 5392 (BG Charter South K–5): • 5182 (BG Preparatory Academy Charter 7–12): == Ben Gamla Preparatory Academy ==

Ben Gamla Preparatory Academy

Ben Gamla Preparatory Academy is currently the only high school that offers high school grades in the various Ben Gamla campuses. It is directly across the street to the original Ben Gamla Charter School which originally offered Kindergarten to 8th Grade, but now only offers Kindergarten to 6th Grade due to the addition of the school. The school is led by Gayle Iaocono, alongside Danielle Guski as acting Vice Principal with 19 teachers in all of the classrooms. The governing board selected by the local government to manage Ben Gamla Preparatory Academy include 5 directors: • Debra Klien • Daniel Fernandez • Henry Ellenbogen • Gary Puckrein • Michelle Gerson • Sharon Miller • Jack Zucker ==See also==

Source: Wikipedia ↗

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