The Hershorin Schiff Community Day School was developed out of the strong desire for an inclusive, progressive Jewish day school that meets the needs of today’s young families. The diversity of the student body, culture of kindness, and high expectations for academics and behavior have resulted in a place where the staff, students and enrolled families have become a strong and supportive community.
Community Day's pluralistic philosophy, individualized instruction, service learning, and small class sizes ensure that all students feel safe and nurtured, and part of an interconnected global community. The academic program has been designed to take full advantage of the wealth of arts and cultural organizations throughout Sarasota County; curriculum partnerships provide a robust slate of daily and weekly opportunities for students at all grade levels.
There are currently 275 students enrolled at Community Day School who have one critical thing in common: they possess the motivation, ability and character to succeed. The school is uniquely positioned to build bridges between different faiths, levels of observance, and cultures and to graduate future leaders who have the knowledge, skills and global perspective necessary to create a more peaceful, just and compassionate world.
Building sets and other hands-on educational toys help preschoolers let their imaginations run wild
Community Day School was originally established by Temple Beth Sholom in 1974 as a preschool program; the K-8 Goldie Feldman Academy was founded in 1992. In 2015, with generous support from the Hershorin Schiff Community Schools Foundation, the school incorporated as an independent entity and changed its name the following year.
The preschool program is inspired by the Reggio Emilia-inspired approach, which provides children with the tools to navigate their own unique paths of discovery. Play-based learning gives children time to carry out their own ideas and explore information in their surroundings in an experiential, exploratory way, rather than in a didactic, script-based format.
At any given time of day, you will likely find students of all ages participating in hands-on projects, which could range from tending to the garden or building and flying drones to designing and constructing a new bunny cage for the school pet. Instead of limiting learning to textbooks, Community Day teaches students – through doing – to lead as citizens, stewards and scholars.
The school uniquely prepares students to be global citizens who are problem-solvers, who can work cooperatively, and who have empathy for and an understanding of people who may be very different from themselves. Through service learning and a social-emotional learning program based on empathy and compassion, Community Day students practice the value of improving the world each and every day.
A first-grader gathers starfruit from Community Day’s Remember Me Orchard
Additionally, Community Day features daily fine arts, offers foreign language instruction in Spanish and Hebrew, and athletic opportunities for K-8 students. The school also recognizes the importance of going outdoors for at least one hour per day in order to create a well-rounded and effective learning environment – whether indoors or outside school walls.
Community Day is renowned for its pesticide-free organic garden and outdoor classroom, where students cultivate crops throughout the school year. Harvests have been donated to All Faiths Food Bank’s Sprout Mobile Farm Market and to marine residents of Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium as well as used in school lunches.
The future's looking bright: in spite of the pandemic, Community Day School is moving forward with plans to move next year and has already raised millions in support of the effort. The school purchased a new campus – the former Suncoast School for Innovative Studies / Temple Baptist Church property at the corner of McIntosh and Wilkinson Roads – and construction is underway. The school plans to move onto its new, nearly 9-acre site, for the 2021-2022 school year.
Highlights of the new campus will include custom-designed school buildings that will enhance its Reggio Emilia philosophy for preschoolers and support its project-based learning philosophy for grades K-8. Additional features already or will include a chapel for weekly Shabbat services and holiday observances, state-of-the-art science labs, full-sized, lighted outdoor athletic fields, a recently updated gymnasium, an organic garden/outdoor classroom, age-appropriate playgrounds, and much more.
A rendering offers a look at Community Day School’s new entrance (Courtesy of FleischmanGarcia)
While Community Day School is a private, fee-based program, the school is committed to making its exceptional education available to families seeking a high-quality, rigorous and fun environment. Through the Variable Tuition program and participation in state scholarship programs, Community Day School is here for families financially and works to remove financial barriers to children getting the education they deserve.
To learn more, visit communityday.org or call the Admissions office at 941-552-2770.