Photo credit: Leigh Taylor
Submitted by Rockwern Academy
Rockwern Academy, Cincinnati’s Jewish community day school, has begun its school year with a growing student body returning to a renovated campus.
The school started with 256 students, the highest enrollment in over 12 years. Rockwern has grown by more than 100 students in the last decade. Sarah Shmoel, Rockwern’s Director of Admissions & Outreach, shared, “We are so happy to have welcomed 52 new students this year and to have retained over 86% of our students from the previous school year. This is a testament to the strength of our school and how much our families appreciate Rockwern.”
The community is benefitting from Rockwern’s most recent strategic plan, which has strengthened the academic programs as well as made the school more convenient for families. The thriving Early Childhood Education Center, serving students year-round from 12 months old through pre-K, has two new curricula being rolled out this year. Last year, the school adopted a new science-based language arts curriculum in the elementary school. This year, students in kindergarten, sixth, and seventh grades benefit from Spanish instruction, in addition to daily Hebrew instruction. The Judaic Studies curriculum is strengthened by a multi-year partnership with the Jewish Day School Standards and Benchmarks, a field project of the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Additionally, Rockwern again is offering a middle school program, with a seventh-grade class this year and an eighth-grade next year and beyond!
In addition to focusing on academics, the school has undergone the first phase of a modernization project. After renovating three classrooms in 2022, the school hired an architectural firm to design a master plan for the building. The first phase of that work was completed this summer, with four completely renovated early childhood classrooms. These classrooms are approximately 1,000 square feet each and have between 8 and 14 students and two or three teachers in each room. Anna Sarembock, Rockwern’s Board President, shared that “the rooms were expanded to allow for more open areas for the kids to play and learn, to make the spaces more modern, and to increase the safety and security of the students and staff. When our community sees these four beautiful classrooms, we are confident that they will be excited to contribute to the future phases of our renovation project.”
Additionally, in October of 2023, Rockwern opened The Curiosity Center, gifted by Suzy Zipkin, z”l, in honor of her children and grandchildren. This innovative hub for exploration, imagination, and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) education strengthens the school’s academic programs. In this 3,600+ square foot space, students are engaged with various media in the Symson Audio-Visual Studio, the Louis & Beth Guttman Family LEGO Space, the Susan Freeman Creative Materials Space, and the Robotics Space gifted by the Rockwern Parent Community. In addition to our students learning in the space during the school day, we have launched after-school and summer programs for Rockwern and non-Rockwern students in this new space.
Rabbi Laura Baum, Rockwern’s head of school, shared “We believe a strong Jewish day school is essential for the Cincinnati Jewish community and a strong Cincinnati Jewish community is vital for Rockwern. That is why we continue to invest in our school and programs and to partner with other Jewish organizations. We are proud of our role in the Cincinnati Jewish community and thrilled our school is growing in so many ways!”
