Welcome to Kehillah

A PARENT’S PERSPECTIVE FROM OUR HEAD OF SCHOOL,
DAISY PELLANT

Welcome to Kehillah. We’re so glad that you have found your way to our website and are exploring what it might mean to be a part of our community. In 2019, I was doing the same thing as I considered moving my family across the country to Palo Alto. 

I was already impressed by the caring and committed faculty, the maturity and depth of the students, and a community that shared both passion and compassion in their search for a head of school to first stabilize and then guide the school forward. The big questions for me swirled around my kids and their future. Would Kehillah provide the academic challenge our kids needed? Would the nurturing environment protect them from the Silicon Valley pressure we’d heard about? Would they find their people and their place in a smaller school? 

We visited California in December of 2019, counted Teslas, marveled at citrus growing on trees, and tried out this mighty little school in addition to two larger public schools. As a parent of four, I knew it was a fool’s errand to think I was making this decision for my kids. It wouldn’t have worked with the older two and certainly not with this more independent younger pair. To be honest, I thought they’d go for the big, busy, lauded Palo Alto public schools. On their shadow day at Kehillah, we ran into our son on a lunch break at the OFJCC with his guide. His table group was chatting noisily like old friends do. From the way he lifted his chin to casually greet us, “hey”, I knew he had made his decision. Our daughter met us at the end of the day with a big smile, “It’s great. I can already see myself here.” A surprising statement from a transferring senior (yes, we were those parents.) 

The move was made and we couldn’t be happier. Kehillah provided the best senior year for our Annie, helping her feel seen and understood. She found her next step at Boston University through Kehillah’s excellent college counseling process and is thriving. Our son Wren continued the friendships established on that visit day and was buoyed by the supportive science faculty at Kehillah to redefine his future and enter a college program that will lead to a career in emergency medicine. 

As Head of School, I arrived at Kehillah in the height of the pandemic and was met with a welcoming and trusting community pulling together to get through each day. Uncertainty can bring out the best and the worst in people and, for Kehillah, it brought out the best. Parents, our Board of Directors, faculty, and students worked collaboratively with a singular focus to stay together, to stay healthy, and to stay on campus. We made it through challenging years and are using the opportunities of the perspective we’ve gained to build a future previously unimagined. We are creating signature programs, adding to our outdoor campus experience, and looking toward a future of growth, definition, and depth. 

This is an exciting time to be a part of Kehillah. 

L’shalom, a common Hebrew closing wishing someone goes “to peace”, is to bless them with a journey — that their life continually moves in the direction of wholeness¹. And so, I wish for you a journey, filled with movement in the direction of wholeness and to destinations “of which you may be unaware.” We hope your exploration leads you to our campus and time to connect in person.

Daisy Pellant
Head of School

Berkowitz, M. (n.d.). Greetings of peace. Jewish Theological Seminary. (2006) from JTS