קיץ תשע"ד • SUMMER 2014 Size Matters Winning Making It Work in Quito 28 Hebrew Poems 42, 58 and Capetown www.thewbg.com Providing Innovative and Cost Effective Interiors for Learning Spaces JUST SOME OF THE SCHOOLS WE’VE SERVICES WORKED WITH •Programming of Requirements • The Frisch School •Budget Creation • Yeshivat Noam •Product evaluation and selection • Magen David Yeshiva •Design Collaboration • Yavneh Academy •Procurement of Furnishings, • Barrack Academy Millwork and Equipment • Torah Academy of Bergen County •Facility Implementation • Ramaz School •Project Supervision • Koholet Yeshiva High School • Har Sinai • Ilan High School Call Jim or Jay at 732 946 1078 or • Golda Och Academy email us at [email protected] and [email protected] • AND WE HOPE YOU’RE NEXT ! in this issue: RAVSAK News COLUMNS: From the Editor, page 5 • From the Board, page 6 • Good & Welfare, page 7 • Dear Cooki, page 8 • Jonathan Woocher, Keeping the Vision, p. 26 PROGRAMS: Sulam 2.0, page 7 • Moot Beit Din, page 13 • RAVSAK Visits Bay Area Day Schools, page 18 • In the Building, Beyond the Classroom: A Gathering of Experiential Day School Educators, page 21 • Head of School Professional Excellence Project, page 27 • Chai Mitzvah, page 48 • Nevatim: Professional Development in Jewish Gardening and Environmental Education, page 55 • Reshet Roundup, page 61 Small SchoolS 10 Small School, Bigger Job Elaine Cohen Financial Challenges and Opportunities 14 for Jewish Day Schools in Small Communities Daniel Perla The Chai Year: 16 Transitioning from Growth to Sustainability Tal Lewin-Wittle and Rachel Sobel Bearman Federation-Day School Collaboration for 20 Sustainability in Smaller Communities Mark L. Goldstein and Marilyn Forman Chandler 22 Creating an Organizational Ecosystem Andrew Davids and Ethan Tucker Making the Most of 24 Technology in Small Schools Russel Neiss hebrew poetry conteS t winnerS 28-37 caSe StudieS A Small Jewish Community and Its Day School: 38 A Jewish Social Contract Joshua Elkin A Small Jewish Community 42 with a Big Educational Impact Raquel Katzkowicz Meeting a Need by 44 Addressing Special Needs Interview with Ilana Ruskay-Kidd 46 A Primer for School Growth Daniel Alter A School Grows in Washington: 50 Insights on Opening a Second Campus Ronit Greenstein Endowment: 52 A Strong Base of Funding for the Future Lynn W. Raviv large SchoolS Tuning the Choir: 58 The Multicampus School Geoff Cohen and David Ginsberg הידיעון Leading Large Jewish Day Schools: 62 Seeking Answers Together Mitchel Malkus Sizing Things Up: Two Leaders of Large Day 64 • HaYidion Schools Share What Works Shana Harris and Cathy Lowenstein [3] HaYidion: The RAVSAK Journal is a publication of RAVSAK: The Jewish Community Day School Network. It is published quarterly for distribution to RAVSAK member schools, associate members, and other Jewish and general education organizations. No articles may be reproduced or distributed without express written permission of RAVSAK. All rights reserved. Subscriptions are $36/year. Executive Editor: Dr. Barbara Davis Editor: Elliott Rabin, PhD Design: Adam Shaw-Vardi Editorial Board Rabbi Marc Baker, Gann Academy, Waltham, MA Rabbi Matthew Bellas, Vancouver Talmud Torah, Vancouver, BC Jamie Cluchey, Levey Day School, Portland, ME Dean Goldfein, Contra Costa Jewish Day School, Lafayette, CA Jerry Isaak-Shapiro, Agnon School, Beachwood, OH Dr. Andrea Lieber, Silver Academy, Harrisburg, PA Rabbi Jack Nahmod, Abraham Joshua Heschel School, New York, NY Rabbi Harry Pell, Schechter Westchester, Hartsdale, NY Eric Petersiel, Leo Baeck Day School, Toronto, ON Nancy Pryzant Picus, Schlenker School, Houston, TX Dr. Lila Pinto, Colegio Hebreo Maguen David, Cuajimalpa, MX Daniella Pressner, Akiva School, Nashville, TN Dr. Sarah Shulkind, Sinai Akiba Academy, Los Angeles, CA Stacey Sweet, The Brandeis School, Lawrence, NY Amy Wasser, Hillel Academy, Tampa, FL Advisory Panel Sandee Brawarsky, Dr. Jeremy Dauber, Rabbi Eddie Harwitz, Aron Hirt-Manheimer, Mark Joffe, Margot Lurie, Alana Newhouse, Dr. Renee Rubin Ross, Daniel Septimus, Dr. Jonathan Woocher RAVSAK Board of Directors Rebekah Farber (Chair), Uri Benhamron, Lisa Breslau, Dr. N. Shira Brown, Dr. Barbara Davis, Cassandra Gottlieb, Matt Heilicher, Dr. Marc N. Kramer, Paul Levitch, Zipora Schorr, Joseph Steiner, Arnee Winshall (founding chair), Lesley Zafran Advertising Information Please contact Marla Rottenstreich at [email protected] or by phone at 646-450-7280. RAVSAK 254 West 54th Street, 11th floor, New York, NY 10019 p: 212-665-1320 • f: 212-665-1321 • e: [email protected] • w: www.ravsak.org The views expressed in this journal do not necessarily reflect the positions of RAVSAK. RAVSAK would like to thank our associate members: הידיעון HaYidion • HaYidion [4] ¿From by barbara d avisthe Editor “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, large metropolitan areas, where they are strongly impacting Jewish life. We have educated a great number of students who make extraordinary it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” contributions to Jewish life, not only in the United States but all over Mark Twain the world. We are not the staid school that many think because we are small. We are a dynamic community seeding other communities. Our Recently I took part in a program at my local public television station alumni can be counted among those who feel deeply about the continu- in conjunction with the showing of Simon Schama’s “The Story of ity of our people and who are making a difference in Jewish life today.” the Jews.” The program was introduced by an announcer who stated that our local Jewish community was “a forgotten minority.” I was The people at the JCC in Overland Park, Kansas, also thought they shocked. Living as I do, in a very Jewish environment, I never thought were a forgotten minority, until faced with a horrendous catastrophe. of our Jewish community as a “minority,” much less a forgotten one. But then they learned something about their impact. Jacob Schreiber, But on reflection, I realized that he was right. The Jewish people, de- JCC president, spoke at an interfaith Service of Unity and Hope less spite our tremendous influence and impact on the world, are still a than one week after the shootings. “The JCC is in the midst of cel- very small group, often forgotten by the majority. ebrating its 100th anniversary,” he said, “and had asked people to send in their stories about what the JCC means to them. Until last And size matters, although not always in the way we think it does. week’s tragedy struck, the response had been underwhelming. Now, For example, there has been a tremendous amount of research about we probably have 500 stories of people here telling us what the Jew- the benefits of small versus large schools in the United States, but not ish Community Center has meant to them. I didn’t have any clue of much of it is applicable to our Jewish community day school world. what this meant to people as a community center. Everybody and The Institute for Local Self-Reliance reports that “one of the most their brother, their cousin, their friend has had somebody who has effective ways to improve student achievement and curb school vio- swum here, done fitness, did the singing competition, been in a play lence is to reduce the size of the nation’s schools. Hundreds of studies … I think this is why this has hit the community so much, because have found that students who attend small schools outperform those after 100 years of being open to the entire community, everybody has in large schools on every academic measure from grades to test scores. a connection here. It’s unbelievable.” Small schools also build strong communities. Parents and neighbors This issue ofHaYidion will make the case that Jewish community day are more likely to be actively involved in the school. The students schools of all sizes have similar impact. They also have challenges, benefit from community support and the school in turn fosters con- some in proportion to their size, others common to all. Unique to nections among neighbors and encourages civic participation.” Yet in this issue is the inclusion of articles about schools outside of North our Jewish world, we take student achievement and parental involve- America. One is a school enrolling more students than there are Jews ment as givens and school violence is virtually nonexistent. Jewish in the country, and another that enrolls 80% of all Jewish children. day school size is not dependent on policymakers’ demands for the There are several fascinating proposals advanced by our authors, in- economic benefits that accrue to large schools. cluding one that challenges funders to recognize the vibrancy and importance of small schools as a collectivity and to provide support In the Jewish community day school world, size must be measured nationally to ensure their continued vitality. by impact, not numbers. And this impact comes not only from large schools in major metropolitan areas, but from small schools scattered Regardless of size, however, day school leaders, both lay and profes- around the nation. Lynn Raviv, writing in eJewish Philanthropy about sional, seek connections and networks. Luckily for all of us, RAVSAK the N.E. Miles Jewish Day School in Birmingham, Alabama, observed serves as the glue that binds us, and whether you are the only school in that “we have been in existence for 41 years. In those 41 years, we have a small city or a large school with many colleagues in a major metrop- educated almost 1000 students, K-8. If those 1000 students had re- olis, you need those ties. Issues related to size as well as many other mained in Birmingham, married and raised a family, our 1200 Jewish challenges are more easily handled when the experience and advice family community would be much greater.