Golda Och Academy

Last updated

Golda Och Academy
Address
Golda Och Academy
1418 Pleasant Valley Way

West Orange
,
Essex County
,
New Jersey
07052

United States
Coordinates 40°46′41″N74°15′08″W / 40.778007°N 74.252343°W / 40.778007; -74.252343
Information
Type Private
Religious affiliation(s) Jewish
EstablishedSeptember 1965 as Solomon Schechter Day School Of Essex And Union, January 2011 as Golda Och Academy
NCES School IDA0502343 [1]
Principal
  • Eytan Apter (Upper School)
  • Carrie Siegel (Lower School)
Head of School Daniel S. Nevins
Faculty80.8 FTEs [1]
Grades Pre-K–12
Enrollment424 (plus 11 in PreK, as of 2021–22) [1]
Student to teacher ratio5.2:1 [1]
Campus Suburban
Color(s)
  •   Blue
  •   White
  •   Gold [2]
Athletics conference Super Essex Conference
Team nameRoad Runners [2]
Tuition$33,890 (9–11 for 2022–2023) [3]
Website www.goldaochacademy.org

Golda Och Academy is a private Jewish day school in West Orange, New Jersey. It educates Jewish students from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade at two campuses. Previously known as Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union, the current name was adopted in June 2011. It primarily serves families from Essex and Union counties, while also drawing students from other parts of North and Central Jersey, along with New York.

Contents

During the 2021–22 school year, the school enrolled 424 students, along with 11 pre-kindergarten students, and employed 80.8 full-time equivalent classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 5.2:1. The school's student body was 97.4% (413) White, 0.7% (3) Black, 0.7% (3) Asian, 0.7% (3) Hispanic and 0.5% (2) Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. [1]

On July 1, 2021, Daniel S. Nevins became the 8th Head of School, succeeding Adam Shapiro. [4] On the same date, Eytan Apter began serving as the Upper School Principal, and Carrie Siegel became the Lower School Principal.

History

Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union opened in September 1965 at Congregation Beth Shalom in Union Township, Union County, New Jersey, founded by Rabbi Elvin I. Kose, Horace Bier, and Nat Winter. Its inaugural classes included kindergarten and a first grade with 18 students. A new grade was added each year for the initial cohort, culminating in the graduation of the first high school class of nine students in 1977. This was the first high school associated with the Solomon Schechter Day School Association. [5]

In 1979, the school acquired its first dedicated facility, the former Roosevelt School in Cranford, New Jersey after holding classes in various locations across Union and Essex counties. In 1986, it purchased the Irving Laurie Building in West Orange, New Jersey. In September 1991, the Upper School moved to a newly constructed building on Pleasant Valley Way in West Orange, later named the Eric F. Ross Campus in 1995.

The Lower School underwent a $7 million renovation and expansion beginning in 2012. Additions included new science and technology labs, an outdoor classroom and garden, a synagogue, a playground, a library, and a cafeteria. The project also created dedicated art and music spaces, modernized classrooms with updated wiring, and improved accessibility. [6]

Since 2014, Golda Och Academy has expanded its STEM programming. This has included a new STEM class and the founding of a robotics club called CodeRunners. A STEM facility was completed in September 2015. [7]

The school has over 1,800 alumni.[ citation needed ]

Accreditation

The school is accredited by the Solomon Schechter Day School Association and the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools. [8] It exceeds New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards. Golda Och Academy is a beneficiary agency of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest New Jersey and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

Athletics

The Golda Och Academy Road Runners [2] compete in the Super Essex Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). [9] With 95 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Non-Public B for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 37 to 366 students in that grade range (equivalent to Group I for public schools). [10]

The school offers soccer, tennis, volleyball, cross-country, swimming, and basketball for both boys and girls at the middle school or varsity level. Baseball, softball, and a lacrosse club are also available. [2]

In 2013, the school's gymnasium was dedicated to gym teacher and coach Sandy Pyonin in recognition of his 40 years of service at the school. Pyonin has trained more than 30 professional basketball players and coached three teams to National Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championships. [11]

Notable alumni

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 School data for Golda Och Academy, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed November 1, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Golda Och Academy, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  3. ↑ 2022-2023 Tuition, Golda Och Academy. Accessed May 9, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Welcome from the Head of School"
  5. ↑ Our History Archived May 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , Golda Och Academy. Accessed June 14, 2011.
  6. ↑ Ginsberg, Johanna. "Golda Och breaks ground on major renovation; Wilf family kickstarts construction to update 1950s lower school", New Jersey Jewish News , May 23, 2012. Accessed May 4, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Golda Och Academy Of West Orange To See New State-Of-The-Art STEM Center". West Orange, New Jersey Patch.
  8. ↑ Golda Och Academy, New Jersey Association of Independent Schools. Accessed January 14, 2017.
  9. ↑ League & Conference Officers/Affiliated Schools 2020-2021, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020.
  10. ↑ NJSIAA General Public School Classifications 2019–2020, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed November 20, 2020.
  11. ↑ Teicher, Jordan. "The NBA's Jewish Playmaker; Sandy Pyonin helped stars like Kyrie Irving and Al Harrington go pro. Why doesn't he have a Wikipedia page?", Tablet (magazine) , January 8, 2013. Accessed December 15, 2015. "But with Pyonin, legacy comes down to one number: 34. That's the number of his players who have made it to the NBA.... In September, Golda Och held a ceremony to rename their basketball court the 'Sandy Pyonin Court.'"
  12. ↑ Ginsberg, Johanna. "Faster, faster; Golda Och alum at Olympic swimming trials", New Jersey Jewish News , July 13, 2016. Accessed October 27, 2017. "Jessica Antiles of South Orange stood behind the block at the Olympic swimming trials in Omaha, Neb., on June 26, and closed her eyes, visualizing herself doing her best. She repeated her mantra, 'Try 100 percent. The rest is up to God.'... Antiles, 19, a graduate of Golda Och Academy in West Orange and a member of the Maplewood Jewish Center where her father is president, qualified for the Olympic trials two summers ago while swimming with a club team in Israel, for the 400-meter long course individual medley (two laps each of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle)."
  13. ↑ Scheinfeld, Jillian. "Spotlight On: Fashion Designer Rachel Antonoff; Talking to Antonoff about her family, inspiration, and journey to becoming a successful designer", Jewcy , October 15, 2013. Accessed January 14, 2017.
  14. ↑ Mandell, Meredith. "Down to the River: Newly Minted Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop Plans Big; From Goldman Sachs to the Marine Corps to mayor of New York's sixth borough", Observer.com, July 30, 2013. Accessed December 15, 2015. "Livingston is adjacent to West Orange, which is home to the Solomon Schechter day school that Mr. Fulop attended."
  15. ↑ Aberback, Brian. "As Band Says Goodbye, Armor for Sleep Frontman Reflects on Teaneck Roots; Rock and pop-punk band's farewell tour includes New York City show July 14", Teaneck Patch, July 8, 2012. Accessed November 11, 2014. "Influenced by pop-punk, indie rock and emo bands such as New Brunswick's Lifetime, Princeton's Saves the Day and Floridians New Found Glory, Jorgensen formed the punk band Random Task with friends from Solomon Schechter Upper School in West Orange."
  16. ↑ Ginsberg, Johanna. "Day school endowment hits $20 million mark; On first anniversary, schools see funding for tuition, high tech", New Jersey Jewish News , September 11, 2008. Accessed April 4, 2013. "Daniel Och, one of the first students to attend SSDS, is chief executive officer and chair of the board of directors at Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, a global institutional alternative asset management firm with approximately $30 billion in assets."
  17. ↑ Rubin, Debra. "Day school and punk rock collide in teen novel", New Jersey Jewish News , December 6, 2010. Accessed October 8, 2018. "In her latest book, So Punk Rock (And Other Ways to Disappoint your Mother), Ostow, a graduate of the Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union in West Orange, outlines the misadventures of four New Jersey suburban day school teens who form a punk rock band and make a splash on the bar mitzva circuit."
  18. ↑ Barshad, Amos. "Q&A: A Short, Strange Chat With Adam Pally About Writing for Himself, Confidence-Building Through Bombing, and the Future of the Knicks", Grantland, August 18, 2015. Accessed December 15, 2015. "Well, I went to [Jewish day school] Solomon Schechter. I see an A-M-O-S I'm gonna say 'Ahmos.'"
  19. ↑ Biography Archived May 28, 2015, at the Wayback Machine , Ultimate Gabe Saporta. Accessed June 2, 2015. "In 1996 Gabe and his friends Chris Delvecchio and Joshua Scott-Dicker (which he met at the 'Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union' in New Jersey) formed the Band Humble Beginnings."
  20. ↑ Wiener, Robert. "Jersey-bred filmmaker delves into world of chasidim Joshua Weinstein says viewers see ‘Menashe’ as ‘loving portrait’", New Jersey Jewish News , August 2, 2017. Accessed September 12, 2019. "While he was growing up in a Conservative Jewish family in Morristown, and attending what was then Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union in West Orange (now the Golda Och Academy), few would have suspected that Joshua Weinstein would become heavily entrenched in the chasidic communities of Brooklyn."
  21. ↑ "Alumni Profile: Josh Weinstein '01; The writer/director discusses his newly released Yiddish-language film, Menashe", Schechter / Golda Och Academy Alumni Society News, Spring 2017. Accessed September 13, 2019. ""There was a band called Random Task made up of four students from the Class of '01: Matt Goldman, Evan Winiker, Jeremiah Glazer and Ben Jorgensen.""
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