Upscale Jewish school in Greensboro (closed since June 2019) reopens w/ mega 5-year federal contract to accept ‘Unaccompanied Alien Children’
Editor’s note: We thank the news website www.breitbart.com and its reporter John Binder for some of this report, recently updated by this newspaper to reflect new developments.
GREENSBORO – The original mission of American Hebrew Academy was certainly lofty! The following is directly from the school’s original website:
The American Hebrew Academy was opened in 2001 to create a pluralistic learning and leadership environment for international Jewish high school students. The Academy is beautifully situated on a 100-acre campus, including a 22-acre lake. Frank Lloyd Wright’s associate architect, Aaron Green, created the master plan for the campus and building designs.
The Academy campus has 31 buildings totaling 412,712 square feet including 16 dormitory houses, 35 residential staff apartments, and an 88,000 square feet $18 million athletic center. The athletic center includes two basketball courts, rock climbing walls, a racquetball court, an exercise gym, and an eight-lane pool. As of 2016, the American Hebrew Academy had the largest closed-loop geothermal exchange well field in the United States to heat and cool its campus.
The American Hebrew Academy suspended operations at the end of the 2018-19 school year. Plans to reopen as AHA International School for 2021-22 were ended in January 2021.
Just a few months later, in May 2021, during a hearing before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, North Carolina Republican representative Richard Hudson had apparently gotten wind that a plan was in the works to house Unaccompanied Alien Children somewhere in North Carolina.
In a telling exchange, Hudson asked Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra about the matter.
“Are you planning on or have you already sent minors to North Carolina?” Hudson asked, to which Becerra responded: “Congressman, thank you for the question, and first let me respond by saying that we are always trying to make sure that we are providing a safe and legal shelter for the kids who are in our custody … but I will tell you that there is no plan that we have to shelter children in North Carolina … there is no plan that I could tell you of right now to shelter children in North Carolina.”
Since then, a lot has happened. In early June of 2022, the school had clearly switched gears, releasing the following statement:
The Board of Directors of the American Hebrew Academy is pleased to announce that it will lease its campus to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The agency’s Office of Refugee Resettlement will use it as a transitional campus for immigrant children, while they await reunification with family members or other vetted sponsors in the U.S.
There is an urgent need for appropriate facilities to house, provide classroom instruction and other services for unaccompanied immigrant children who are waiting to be placed with family members and vetted sponsors.
The Board believes the American Hebrew Academy is uniquely suited to fill this need and has decided to make the campus available for this purpose.
The school will be leased to the federal government for a period of five years for this use only, continuing the original American Hebrew Academy mission of educating children and preparing them for their future. The American Hebrew Academy will also be contracted to provide the educational programming.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement expects unaccompanied minors to begin arriving at the boarding school campus in July. Up to 800 people will be hired to fulfill functions and provide services.
A new name and website have quickly followed. American Hebrew Academy is now ‘Greensboro Global Academy.’ Read all about it at: www.GreensboroGlobalAcademy.org where you will find a clear hint that the school’s mission has also changed:
Greensboro Global Academy is building a team of talented, passionate, and hard-working educators to ensure our students, whose first language is Spanish, receive an innovative, culturally relevant, experience-based education.
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