By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
When the Torah Day School of Seattle’s plans to move into the historic Columbia City Public School collapsed last April due to the city’s need for space, they waited, hoping they could complete the move in time for the 2010-2011 school year.
This summer, just two weeks before the August 30 start of school, TDS signed a three-year lease with the Seattle Public School District and scrambled, with the help of more than 50 parent, staff, and community volunteers, to spruce up the 1920s-era school, located in the heart of the trendy Columbia City neighborhood, just west of Rainier Avenue South.
Vacant since November 2009, the grounds were somewhat unkempt, but the neighbors pitched in and welcomed them with open arms.
“They’re really nice,” said Rabbi Sheftel Skaist, head of school at TDS. “We had a couple of families who were out there on one of our play yards and they volunteered to clean it up. It was wonderful to see that the local community views this as something that they’d like to take care of.”
Currently in its fifth year of operation, the Orthodox Jewish day school now occupies a facility that spans a 3.2-acre square block of land, and is equipped with Internet connections, 13 classrooms, a gym, a library, a beit midrash study area, a lunchroom, an organic garden with a greenhouse, and multiple play areas where students can let out all of their pent-up physical energy during their day of rigorous, dual-curriculum studies.
“We have a completely covered outdoor area that can fit our entire school at once,” Skaist said.
The school-age children have plenty of areas for play and sports, while the preschool has a dedicated playground as well.
TDS’s 1st and 2nd grades are co-ed, and the 3rd grade may or may not be, depending upon the class, but grades 4 through 8 grades are separated by gender. They use what Skaist calls a “blended-grades” model.
“We look at not only a student’s age, but also their academic abilities and their emotional development,” said Skaist. “Then, we group them based on a number of criteria. It just depends on where they fall developmentally.”
Half of the school day is devoted to general studies, and the other half to Jewish studies, where students learn from the classic Jewish texts including the Torah, prophets, and Jewish law.
In TDS’s previous location, a converted elder-care facility, the common area was a cafeteria-style space that doubled as a lunchroom and an indoor recess area. As enrollment increased, however, even that space was cordoned off to create makeshift classrooms.
When the school began five years ago, it had 52 students.
“This year, we’re at 104,” Skaist said.
The Columbia City School, however, has capacity for far more.
“It’s a campus, it’s a real school!” said Ezra Genauer, development chair at TDS. Genauer’s three children all attend TDS.
Genauer said the school will be able to section off part of the facility to sublease.
“There’s actually one hallway that’s going to be a cultural corner, where we will lease some rooms to a dance company, and a historical society. We can provide a service to the community and make space available for these important elements of the community.”
Connecting with their local neighbors is a high priority for TDS. Since so many of the surrounding residents most likely attended school there before the district closed it, TDS decided to keep all of the play areas open to the community after school hours and until dusk.
“There’s a history here,” said Skaist. “People come here with their kids and their strollers and it’s really nice to see. We want to maintain community expectations.”
Next to one of the jungle gym play areas is a large organic garden filled with beds of fruiting cherry tomatoes, ready-to-eat cabbages, and carrots. Another section is packed with blossoming herbs like lemon balm and long-stemmed flowers bursting with color. A quaint and somewhat distressed greenhouse is waiting for a caretaker with a green thumb to restore its natural beauty.
“The space is so versatile and unique,” Genauer said. “It could be used for many educational purposes, for both science and religious purposes,” he added. “You could plant things for Pesach like bitter herbs, and other things. It does work very well with the hands-on approach, educationally, that the school has.”
TDS is considering a partnership of sorts with the local Columbia City Farmer’s Market for them to teach classes there, or maybe parents might teach classes to students. The possibilities seem limitless to Genauer.
“There’s never been a [Jewish] school that has had this type facility before,” he said. “I could see it being used for community events, or a Hanukkah party for the community. On weekends, we could have concerts here. The potential is here. Then we could share the wonderful gift we have of this building with the whole community.”