Building the future of Hebrew Academy’s youngest learners

Angelique Flores

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- After a yearlong battle for permits, the Hebrew

Academy finally broke ground Sunday for its new preschool.

The battle pitted the city and the academy against neighboring

Westminster. Westminster city officials appealed Huntington Beach’s

decision to allow the preschool to be built by the academy, which is on

the edge of Huntington Beach and faces Westminster. Increased traffic was

one of the concerns Westminster officials raised.

But in July, a judge denied Westminster’s appeal and ended the

controversy.

“It’s been a long journey,” Dean Rabbi Yitzchok Newman said.

With state-of-the-art programs, the preschool needs facilities to

match, academy officials said. The preschool’s four classrooms are now

spread across the campus. And preschool director Chanie Perelmuter’s

small office prevents her from holding parent conferences.

“My office is a closet,” Perelmuter said. “If I’m in the office, no

else is in there.”

The new 4,000-square-foot building, which will cost $750,000, will

allow the four classrooms to be situated together and near the back of

the academy, where children will be safer because it’s away from the

street, officials say. The building will also feature a larger director’s

office and lobby to better accommodate parents..

When the preschool moves out of the rooms it occupies now, those rooms

will be converted into a library, a computer lab and a sanctuary for the

older students.

The preschool serves children between the ages of 2 and 4 and has

reached its capacity of 60 students. There’s already a waiting list for

next year, academy officials said.

School officials intend to keep the preschool, which is part of the

National Assn. of Education for Young Children, on top of latest programs

with the upgraded facilities.

“If you get them [children] when they’re young, that will last them a

lifetime,” Yitzchok said.

This is the first new permanent building the 23-year-old school will

build. The six-month project is expected to be done by the spring and

ready for the school’s camp in June.

The preschool building isn’t the only upgrade the academy has planned.

An old modular building on the south side of the campus will be replaced

by a larger one to house a development office and teacher center.

In addition, the campus will add about 25 new parking spaces, upgrade

the turnaround driveway in the front of the academy and beautifying the

administration building.

“In order to continue with our reputation,” Yitzchok said, “we need to

upgrade out facility and programs.”