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Yeshiva at the Jersey Shore (YJS) has been adding a grade each year since opening in 2006, but plans to launch a kindergarten program in addition to a 6th grade class this fall represent a larger step forward than usual.

The yeshiva always had the vision of growing into a K-8 day school, which it is on track to become in two years, said Rabbi Dr. Elie Tuchman, head of school. Many schools start with kindergarten, but Tuchman said YJS did not since there was an existing kindergarten at Deal Park's Ruth Hyman Jewish Community Center, where YJS is housed.

However, with many parents asking "for our particular approach and our particular program to be applied to kindergarten," now was the right time to start the program, Tuchman said. YJS, which features a modern Orthodox education based in Ashkenazi tradition and currently has 29 students, is well on its way to ending the problem of families avoiding the area due to the lack of a certain grade in the local school, he said.

"That's something that, one year at a time, we are remedying," Tuchman said.

Lisa Shapiro of Ocean, who has enrolled her younger daughter Brynn in the new kindergarten, said she had a few other options for Brynn and "they were all fine," but when she received a flyer in the mail about YJS kindergarten "it was like suddenly the light goes off and it all falls into place, because I have something better than fine, I have extraordinary."

What sets YJS apart is the individual attention each student receives, Shapiro said. Her older daughter Amy, who was the first student to enroll at YJS in 2006, never complains about any subjects and is always excited about school, meaning that there's no such thing as a "math-phobe" or "chumash-phobe" there, she said.

"It's tailored, and yet it's a general curriculum," Shapiro said. "Every child excels in their own way in this curriculum."

Tuchman recalled that when parents approached him about adding grades 3 and 4 at the same time two years ago, and suggested the idea of a combined class, he was skeptical because he didn't want to "water anything down" and grow at the expense of students' quality of education.

However, Tuchman spent three months of planning with YJS parents and officials, mapping out a curriculum that shared content for the combined 3rd/4th grade class but made sure skill levels were grade-appropriate within that class. Grades 3 and 4 had separate math teachers but the same teachers for history and Judaic studies, he said.

"As we developed it, it really became an extension of our overall approach," Tuchman said of the joint class. "We really do tailor the curriculum to every child's skill level in every area."

Amy is in the YJS combined 4th/5th grade class this year and will be in the new combined 5th/6th grade next year. When grades 3 and 4 were first combined two years ago, Shapiro said she wasn't worried and "knew that Amy would get what she needed." In fact, Shapiro thinks students benefit from learning with children of other ages and geographic areas; YJS students come from Monmouth, Middlesex, and Ocean Counties.

"[Amy] has really thrived being with this nice mix of children," Shapiro said.

Tuchman said the Hyman JCC has a "great program" for kindergarten, and the new YJS kindergarten isn't intended to compete with that program.

"It's part of our ongoing relationship [with the JCC], and we certainly want to do it in a way that doesn't hurt the J," Tuchman said of starting a kindergarten.