Leo Baeck Day School - School Information

School Information

Former School Director Zita Gardner retired in July 2004. She was replaced by David Prashker, formerly a senior teacher at a British private school and Housemaster of Polack's, the last Jewish boarding facility in Europe. The Leo Baeck Day School, under David Prashker's direction, released a five-year plan, which, among other things, reconstituted the school's Board of Trustees as a Strategic Board, focusing on the future of the school and leaving day-to-day management in the hands of the professionals. The installation of laptops in every classroom has been accomplished, as the first phase of a major introduction of technology into the teaching programme. in 2007-2008 school year, the school introduced a "roaming lab" of laptops for student use, and installed Smartboards at each campus.

According to the Toronto Star, Prashker resigned in 2008 after the parents responded negatively to the discovery of sexually explicit poetry that he had published decades earlier, but was available on the internet.

At the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year, Dennis Grubbs took the reins as Interim Director of The Leo Baeck Day School, as he helped during the school's transition year. At the end of his much lauded term, Dennis Grubbs handed the position over to Eric Petersiel, who had long-served as the school's South Campus principal.

In January 2011, the school was accepted as an official International Baccalaureate school for the Middle School years. The introduction of "Best Practices" in the Primary grades supports the IB philosophy, although the Primary School is not an official International Baccalaureate school.

Leo Baeck is run by the Head of School (Eric Petersiel), a principal at each campus (Ron Mintz at the South Campus and Yvette Burke at the North Campus),and the Board, which is composed of parents and members of the community. The school is affiliated with the Mercaz, the Union for Reform Judaism, and PARDeS, the Progressive Association of Reform Day Schools.

The North Campus includes classes from Nursery through Grade 8 and the South Campus includes classes from SK through Grade 8. In the year 2005-2006, The Leo Baeck Day School South Campus had its first graduating class. The North Campus recently renovated its main building to now include a wider, more attractive entryway as well as replacing its main gym's tiled floors with highly anticipated wooden ones. This renovation also replaced some classrooms with office space and a new multi-purpose room to be used by Temple Kol Ami, a reform synagogue that has been and will continue to be stationed at Leo Baeck's North Campus.

Leo Baeck publishes "The Baeck and Call" every season, a magazine with school updates and events.