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Jewish Community News

December 2003

Kehillah forfeits Blackford Campus to higher bidder

Kehillah Jewish High School forfeited its lease with the Blackford Campus to a higher bidder in early December at an auction hosted by the Campbell Union High School District.

By the end of the December 4 auction, the Harker School had offered $1.5 million, more money than Kehillah was prepared to pay. The bids started at $750,000-a-year for a 20-year lease, and went up in $5,000 increments.

At the end of the day, Kehillah representatives said they felt very good about their decision. "Our commitment in dollars and cents is to the excellence of our academic programs — teachers, curriculum, extracurricular activities — and not to a particular building or site," Kehillah Chairman Len Lehmann wrote in an email to community members after the meeting. "What happens inside the classrooms is more important than where the classrooms are located."

Harker will not take possession of the site until July 2005, giving Kehillah board members plenty of time to search for a new location. Yavneh Day School, which is also located on the Blackford Campus, has committed to moving into the new Gloria and Ken Levy Family Campus, which is expected to be completed by July 2005.

According to Lehmann, the Ke-hillah site committee has maintained a list of available alternative sites and will pursue those sites as well as look for others. The aim is to find a location inside the school's service area that stretches from San Mateo to Los Gatos to Fremont.
Larry Brickman, parent of Kehillah sophomore Ilyssa Brick-man, says he is sad to lose the Blackford campus with all its amenities but that he has confidence the Kehillah site committee will find a suitable new location.

"Not knowing where you're going to go kind of leaves you in limbo but Kehillah seems to have always done it right," Brickman said. "Whatever they do, we've been really happy with the decisions. We have confidence that the board members and planning group will do right by us because they've always had such a great plan in place. The attitude has always been ‘let's put big emphasis on what happens inside the classroom, rather than where the classrooms are.'"

Still, parents acknowledge it will be difficult to find a campus that matches the quality of the Blackford grounds. When Kehillah Jewish High School opened its doors in September 2002, the school was thrilled to show off its tennis courts, athletic fields, swimming pool, locker rooms, science labs and much more. It had plans to renovate the swimming pools on the campus, and had been excited about leasing the facilities for the next 20 years.

Now, however, Kehillah representatives says they are committed to finding an equally appealing site with "everything that a traditional high school has." Lehman says he is hoping that parents will be actively involved in this process.

"Many parents may have professional ties with real estate and other areas," Lehman said. "This is a problem that will be solved."

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