When he applied for the position of upper school principal at the Solomon Schechter Day School, Ari Yares said he was seeking a new challenge in his career.
Now, he said, he thinks he’s found it in the private Jewish school in Williston Park.
“There’s so much here that is wonderful and exciting going on,” Yares said.
Yares, who is beginning his first year at the helm of the upper school, said he is excited by the incorporation of new technologies such as iPads and PC Notebooks and the interaction between Schechter students and their peers at the nearby St. Aidan School.
“I like instructional technology because it offers a modality that is ubiquitous in [students’] lives,” Yares said.
Yares said he also likes the idea of the outreach between Solomon Schechter and St. Aidan because it’s part of the school’s support for the larger community.
Yares, 35, was middle school principal at the Krieger Schechter Day School in Baltimore prior to taking the position at Schechter. He had also been a fellow of the Day School Leadership Training Institute, an elite two-year program developing future leaders of the Jewish Day Schools in North America.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology and Hebraic studies at Rutgers University, he earned his masters in education and a doctorate in psychology from Temple University while starting a career as a school psychologist.
He spent four years working in the public school system of Annapolis, Md. as a school psychologist before moving to his job at Krieger Schechter.
“It really resonated for me,” he said of his four years at Krieger Schechter. “I had done some consulting work in Jewish education.”
That work entailed administering a Jewish education program with a United Synagogue Youth group.
“To be able to have conversations with kids where you’re talking about big issues from a common religious framework was exciting to me,” Yares said.
At Schechter, he’s particularly enthused about the open interaction between teachers and upper school students, who have ready access to the upper school’s instructors in the teacher’s room.
“To me it’s one of the most important things that the students have [academic] relationships with their teachers,” he said.
Yares said his first objective is to acquaint himself with the school’s culture and establish a productive interaction with the students.
“This is a two-way street where I’m going to learn from them and bring my own background on what my experience has been,” he said.
Newly settled in Syosset, Yares said he’s looking forward to exploring New York City’s cultural life with his wife, Ali, who is associate director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance.
Yares said he spends most of his free time with their two young children, aged two and four years old.
He also enjoys cooking. And he said he enjoys cycling and swimming, which he engaged in competitively through high school in Cherry Hill, N.J.
