WEST HARTFORD - A Jewish day school may move above ground from its basement location at Congregation Agudas Achim on North Main Street to a site former utilized by the University of Hartford on Bloomfield Avenue.
Plans for the new Hebrew High School of New England, which would involve demolition of the former University of Hartford Alumni House and the retention of its carriage house, call for an approximately 32,000 square foot, two story building on 11 acres of land. In addition to classrooms and science labs, the facility would include a chapel, indoor gym, and an athletic field behind the building.

The Planning and Zoning Commission will consider the school's application at their Nov. 4 meeting.
Ted Zablotsky, the president of school's board of directors, said that moving to a new, light-filled location is especially critical since the school day at Hebrew High School lasts from 8 a.m. to 5:20 p.m. to squeeze in both classes in both Judaic Studies and general education.
"We have a very long day, and in the winter time the kids don't see much light," he said.

The new location also allows use of the Mandell JCC and other facilities at Zachs Campus, just steps away from the site of the proposed high school, and a pedestrian pathway from the school to Zachs Campus is part of the proposal.
The proposed school is designed to accommodate 120 students. Currently 78 students are enrolled, drawn from West Hartford, New Haven, and Springfield, Mass. Solomon Schechter Day School and Hebrew Academy of Bloomfield, both of which only offer classes through 8th grade, are feeder schools for Hebrew High School, which is the only co-educational school of its kind between New York and Boston, Zablotsky said.

He said the 14-year-old school has an outsized reputation although it lacks its own building, with graduates attending top colleges and universities and a disproportionate number of National Merit Scholars.
An agreement between the University of Hartford and Hebrew High School of New England for the purchase of the tracts of land, which include 300, 312, and 340 Bloomfield Avenue, was reached in 2007. Zablotsky said that the purchase is contingent on Planning and Zoning Commission approval.
Town Planner Mila Limson said the school has voluntarily worked with the Design Review Advisory Committee for over a year and has made changes to the original plan. As a result of consultation with the committee, the carriage house part of the existing building will be saved, and the design of the building is more in keeping with that original structure.

A traffic study for the applicant performed by Fuss and O'Neill as part of the application concluded that the new high school would have no significant impact to traffic operations in the area.