Anyone in LA Send Their Kids to Conejo Jewish Day School?

Conejo Jewish Day School is an Amaizing school! only Nachat!

No advice on the school, but are you a member of the yahoo group peachhead? It's LA-specific, so you can probably find more people there who have info about the school. Good luck.

Hi S.,

In response to yesterday's question -- a friend of mine took her kids out of Kadima and placed them in Emek. She was very happy with the education they received there. One is in business school and CSUN now and the other is making Aliyah to join Tz'hal.

We moved to the L.A. are when our daughter was 10 and son was 14. DD attended Kadima and DS went to NJCHS. There were pros and cons to each school, and keep in mind this was 10 years ago. Both schools offered good, small classroom experiences. Since it looks like you're looking at elementary education, I'll just address Kadima.

I can't speak for Kadima today as the administration has completely changed. What I can suggest is what to look for when you're checking out day schools.

1. How is the Hebrew curriculum handled? Is it a separate class or is it full immersion? What would work best for your child?
2. Does the school engage in daily T'fillah? Kadima only had weekly Shabbat t'fillah as it's a Schechter school (Conservative). I believe Emek is Orthodox, and had daily t'fillah.
3. What are the demographics of the school? Will your son be able to enjoy friendships outside of the classroom easily close to home, or will you be constantly driving him to play dates because his classmates all live somewhere else? Also -- and this turned out to be a big issue for us -- is the school truly a day school suited to the needs of those for whom Hebrew is a second language, or is it populated predominantly by Israeli native speakers? This can actually make a big difference in the educational philosophy of the school.
4. Is the school academically sound? When my DD was at Kadima, the class was very small -- 13 total in her grade by middle school. Not every student was at the same academic level. Believe it or not, the honors students were the ones who suffered the most, as they were pretty much left to teach themselves in some subjects so the teacher could work with the other students.
5. Does the school offer additional resources for students on both ends of the extremes? This means things like reading resource for challenged students and GATE programs for the gifted.

Good luck with your search!