Rochelle Brand named principal of HAFTR Middle School

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of March 19, 2010/ 4 Nissan 5770

Rochelle Brand is about to go island hopping. The Staten Island resident will commute to Long Island beginning in July when she starts work as principal of the middle school at the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR). For the last 14 years she has been head of school at Yeshiva University High School for Girls (Central).

As the head of a high school, “I’ve had a lot of experience knowing where they should be going. Now [my new role] will give me the opportunity to help them along the way,” Brand told The Jewish Star.

“When they’re in high school they’re still discovering their own strengths and potential but, pretty much, they come molded from middle school. There’s an exciting opportunity to help kids - they’re really still kids in middle school - [and] its an exciting opportunity to help guide them in finding the right direction to grow,” she added.

Brand has been an educator for more than 35 years. Over time she’s taught a variety of Judaic subjects as well as algebra and biology. She holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Biology from Brooklyn College, and a degree from Teachers Institute for Women of Yeshiva University. She is completing the doctoral program in Educational Administration at YU’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education.

Education is something of a family business: Brand’s husband, Moishe, is the general studies principal at Yeshiva Ketana in Manhattan. The oldest of their six children is 34; the youngest is 13 and a 7th grader on Staten Island.

“I can relate well” to middle school, she said, adding, “I feel strongly that communities should support their neighborhood school[s].”

Among her proudest accomplishments during her tenure at Central, Brand said, are SAT scores that “have risen dramatically because of our emphasis on expository writing,” a science institute for young women interested in research, and an annual academic exchange program with high school girls from Ulpanat Zvia in Ma’ale Adumim.

Brand does not plan any immediate changes at the HAFTR middle school — that would be ‘presumptuous,’ she said. She describes her long terms goals as “stability” and “growth” and to be able to reinforce “that commitment to excellence that has always been HAFTR’s hallmark.”

She will be working with Rabbi Dovid Kupchik, the middle school’s Judaic studies principal; Rabbi David Liebtag is head of school.

“I’m looking forward to working with Rabbi Kupchik and Rabbi Liebtag,” Brand said. “That’s the beauty of it: three strong, experienced educators.”