Why Ekhla?
Eleanor Kolitz Hebrew Language Academy (EKHLA) is a K-8 open enrollment public charter school with a partial immersion Hebrew Language focus. We offer a rich and innovative curriculum, with passionate teachers and extraordinary student support. Our dedicated teachers know their students individually. We educate the whole student to be gracious, kind and tolerant. Our goal is to develop curious lifelong learners who have a sense of responsibility to the world. Our purpose is to inspire our students to know who they are, what they want, and to have the confidence to achieve their dreams.
Our Promise: Academic Excellence – Hebrew Fluency – Nurturing Environment
Who was Eleanor Kolitz?
EKHLA History
The Eleanor Kolitz Academy (EKA) was founded in 1972 as a private Jewish day school in San Antonio. Throughout its forty year history as a private Jewish day school, it provided its students with an outstanding secular and Jewish education.
After 41 years, due to dropping enrollment and financial difficulties, the private school closed. In the midst of this closing, a small group got together on their own time and with their personal financial resources to create a new educational entity. They visited a public charter school model in Florida that taught modern Hebrew as a second language. A charter application was filed in Texas and was approved. Our charter school, EKHLA, opened in August 2013 with grades K-8 and almost 200 students. The Charter was approved to expand to a high school grades in the future.
Although many individuals and families provided significant support to the effort to create our school, one family in particular was instrumental in its vision and financial support in helping our school become a reality: the Kolitz Family. This family had a long-standing relationship with the private school and saw the value in this new public charter model endeavor. In appreciation for the unwavering support of Mr. and Mrs. Robert and Sandi Kolitz, EKHLA’s School Board of Directors in 2013 decided to name our school the Eleanor Kolitz Hebrew Language Academy, in honor and memory of Eleanor Kolitz, an extraordinary woman strongly committed to education and achievement.
As of the 2019-2020 school year, EKHLA is in its 7th year and our student body is still growing. We continue to be the only public school that teaches modern Hebrew as a second language in Texas and currently serve 440+ students on our K-8 campus.