Frequently Asked Questions
What grades does the school include, and how many students are enrolled?
Where do your graduates go on to for high school?
Where are you located?
Are you accredited?
Who started the school, and when?
How large are your classes? How many teachers work with each?
What is your curriculum like?
Do you have any after-school or extracurricular programs?
What's the community like? Are the parents friendly?
What is your annual tuition?
If your tuition is set on a sliding scale, how can you afford this enriched educational program?
Q. What grades does the school include, and how many students are enrolled?
A. The Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan is a kindergarten through eighth grade school. We currently have 130 students enrolled in kindergarten through eighth grade.
Q. Where do your graduates go on to for high school?
A. More than half of our graduates are in Jewish private high schools, including Heschel, Schechter Westchester, and SAR. Approximately one quarter of our graduates have chosen to attend independent high schools, including Horace Mann, Trinity, and Calhoun. The rest of our graduates have enrolled in Specialized public high schools, such as Stuyvesant and LaGuardia, or in other elite public high schools.
Q. Where are you located?
A. Our kindergarten and first grade classrooms are currently located at 50 East 87th Street, at Park Avenue Synagogue. The Upper Elementary (2-5) and Middle School (6-8) divisions, are currently located at 15 West 86th Street, at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism. For the upcoming 2010-2011 school year, Schechter Manhattan will be opening a new campus on the Upper West Side.
Q. Are you accredited?
A. Yes. We are accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS). We are also members of the Independent School Association of New York (ISAAGNY) and the New York Guild of Independent Schools. We are chartered as a Jewish day school by the Solomon Schechter Day School Association, which is associated with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
Q. Who started the school, and when?
A. A group of Conservative rabbis, joined by community members concerned about Jewish education for New York City families, began planning the school in 1994. The school opened its doors in 1996 to its first class of 14 kindergartners, under the headship of Dr. Steven C. Lorch.
Q. How large are your classes? How many teachers work with each?
A. Our classes range in size from ten to a maximum of twenty children.
In the Lower Elementary (K-1) and Upper Elementary (2-5) divisions, each class is taught by two full-time, bilingual co-teachers, who together share responsibility for the child's development as a learner across all subject areas, Jewish and general. Middle School students (6-8) have four teachers: who specialize in the core areas of humanities, math, sciences, and Jewish Studies.
Specialist teachers also work with our students in art, music, physical education, and, in the Middle School, Spanish.
Q. What is your curriculum like?
A. Our goal is to help students grow into active, skilled, and powerful learners. In all subjects, from math to t'filah, lessons are planned to help students grow in mastery and confidence. Extensive individualized and group work means teachers spend less time talking at the front of the classroom, and more time listening to and observing students in their individual progress. In Lower Elementary classes, students periodically collaborate to choose their class's theme of study. Older students choose questions to research in individual projects that grow increasingly complex, culminating in Middle School exhibitions in each of the core areas of study.
Q. Do you have any after-school or extracurricular programs?
A. Yes. We have a chess club for Kindergarten and 1st grade students. For our 2nd-5th graders, the after-school program includes soccer, chess, yoga and the aviation club. Middle school students may join the school's soccer team in the fall, the basketball team in the winter and the drama club in the spring (5th graders are invited to join the middle school students or participate in Upper Elementary after-school programs).
Q. What's the community like? Are the parents friendly?
A. Our very active Parents' Association is charged with helping Schechter Manhattan stay a learning and caring community. Workshops on children's learning and development, and opportunities for Jewish learning alternate in the Parents' Association calendar with fundraisers and community building events and fundraisers. An annual Shabbaton retreat in the spring is often attended by more than half of the families in the school. Many Schechter parents find that other parents in the school have become their closest friends.
Q. What is your annual tuition?
A. Because we are committed to making a Schechter Manhattan education accessible to many Jewish families, without regard to their ability to pay, we set our tuition on a sliding scale. For 2009-2010, the maximum tuition is the actual cost of education ($27,500 for K-1st, $27,750 for 2nd - 3rd, $27,950 for 4th-8th); the minimum tuition is a nominal sum.
Q. If your tuition is set on a sliding scale, how can you afford this enriched educational program?
A. The school community - parents, grandparents, trustees, and many other friends of Jewish education - raises about three-quarters of a million dollars each school year to support our dual commitment to excellence and access, through an annual Benefit Dinner, an annual appeal, and other generous gifts. Since 2003, every single family in the school has made some gift in financial support, at a very wide range of levels appropriate to their means.
