Golda Och Academy is a private
Jewish day school that offers secular and religious education for Jewish children from
pre-kindergarten through
twelfth grade at two campuses in
West Orange in
Essex County,
New Jersey, United States. Until June 2011 the school was called Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union. The school primarily serves families in Essex and
Union counties, but attracts students from all over northern and central
New Jersey and also New York.
As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 424 students (plus 11 in PreK) and 80.8 classroom teachers (on an
FTE basis), for a
student–teacher ratio of 5.2:1. The school's student body was 97.4% (413) White, 0.7% (3) Black, 0.7% (3) Asian, 0.7% (3) Hispanic and 0.5% (2) Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander.[1]
On July 1, 2021,
Daniel S. Nevins became the 8th Head of School, succeeding Adam Shapiro.[4] Also on that date, Eytan Apter became the Upper School Principal. Carrie Siegel is the Lower School principal.
History
The school opened in September 1965 at Congregation Beth Shalom in
Union, New Jersey, having been founded by its rabbi, Elvin I. Kose, along with Horace Bier and Nat Winter. The first classes were kindergarten and a first grade consisting of 18 children. A new grade was added each year for the initial class, and the first class of nine students graduated from the high school in 1977. This was the first high school affiliated with the
Solomon Schechter Day School Association.[5]
The school moved into its own facilities in 1979 for the first time with the acquisition of the former Roosevelt School in
Cranford. Classes were held in various locations in Union and Essex counties. That was followed seven years later in 1986 by the purchase of the Irving Laurie Building in West Orange. In September 1991, the Upper School moved into a newly constructed building on Pleasant Valley Way in West Orange, which in 1995 became the Eric F. Ross Campus.
The Lower School completed a $7 million renovation that began in 2012, which included an expansion of the building, building of a new wing and refurbishment of existing spaces. Project highlights included the addition of a science discovery lab and outdoor classroom and garden, a new technology lab, synagogue, playground, library, and cafeteria; creation of a specialty space for art and music; updated and wired classrooms; and increased accessibility.[6]
Beginning in 2014, Golda Och Academy has increased its Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (collectively STEM) programming, including a new STEM class, an award-winning Robotics club the CodeRunners, and more. In January 2015, the school announced plans for a state-of-the-art STEM facility which was completed in September 2015.[7]
The Golda Och Academy Road Runners[3] compete in the
Super Essex Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the
New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).[9] With 95 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Non-Public B for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 37 to 366 students in that grade range (equivalent to Group I for public schools).[10]
Sports include; Soccer, Tennis, Volleyball, Cross-Country, Swimming and Basketball for both boys and girls on a middle school or varsity level. Baseball and Softball are offered as well as a new Lacrosse club.[3]
In 2013, the school's gymnasium was dedicated in honor of gym teacher and coach Sandy Pyonin in celebration of his 40 years at SSDS/GOA. Pyonin has trained more than 30 professional basketball players including
Kyrie Irving.[11]
Joshua Weinstein (born 1983, class of 2001), independent filmmaker who directed the
A24 film, Menashe (2017), and the feature documentaries, Driver's Wanted (2012) and Flying on One Engine (2008).[20][21]
^Ginsberg, Johanna.
"Faster, faster; Golda Och alum at Olympic swimming trials", New Jersey Jewish News, July 13, 2016. Accessed October 27, 2017. "Jessica Antiles of South Orange stood behind the block at the Olympic swimming trials in Omaha, Neb., on June 26, and closed her eyes, visualizing herself doing her best. She repeated her mantra, 'Try 100 percent. The rest is up to God.'... Antiles, 19, a graduate of Golda Och Academy in West Orange and a member of the Maplewood Jewish Center where her father is president, qualified for the Olympic trials two summers ago while swimming with a club team in Israel, for the 400-meter long course individual medley (two laps each of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle)."
^Rubin, Debra.
"Day school and punk rock collide in teen novel", New Jersey Jewish News, December 6, 2010. Accessed October 8, 2018. "In her latest book, So Punk Rock (And Other Ways to Disappoint your Mother), Ostow, a graduate of the Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union in West Orange, outlines the misadventures of four New Jersey suburban day school teens who form a punk rock band and make a splash on the bar mitzva circuit."
^BiographyArchived May 28, 2015, at the
Wayback Machine, Ultimate Gabe Saporta. Accessed June 2, 2015. "In 1996 Gabe and his friends Chris Delvecchio and Joshua Scott-Dicker (which he met at the 'Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union' in New Jersey) formed the Band Humble Beginnings."