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August 11, 2000/10 Av 5760, Vol. 52, No.48
School expands into synagogue
LEISAH NAMM
Staff Writer
A decision to get their own building has led families whose children attend a local Jewish preschool and charter school to start their own synagogue.
After renting space from Temple Kol Ami in Scottsdale for six years, officials at Gan Yeladeem: The Looking Glass School and the Gan Yeladeem Learning Center decided it was time for the schools to have their own space. While searching for a location, some families suggested that the schools might expand into a synagogue, said Susan K. Heller, principal of the school and president of the board of directors for the fledgling Congregation Gan Shalom.
Plans are underway for the synagogue to hold its first service for Rosh Hashana in northeast Phoenix and possibly to affiliate with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the main body of the Reform movement, Heller said.
In its first year, the synagogue will offer community-wide family services and religious school.
A new site, not released at press time, will house the preschool, Gan Yeladeem Learning Center; charter school, Gan Yeladeem: The Looking Glass School; and a summer camp, Camp Kaiyitz.
Some 95 children are enrolled in the charter school, a tuition-free elementary school for children from kindergarten to sixth grade; 110 children are enrolled in the preschool.
Gan Yeladeem was approved as a secular charter school by the Arizona State Board of Education in 1996.
Synagogue membership dues start at $200 per family.
For a membership packet, call 480-922-7236.
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