Hillel Academy reboots, 2011

  

With secular curriculum and principal from Miami Valley School, new Judaics program, tightened budget & reevaluation of all staff, Dayton’s Jewish day school steps up fight to survive

 

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer

Facing the lowest enrollment since its fledgling years and an uphill budget battle, Hillel Academy of Greater Dayton will begin its 2011-12 school year with a complete overhaul that includes a partnership with a private prep school, a reevaluation of all staff positions, and a new comprehensive Judaics/Hebrew curriculum.

“I wish we had the luxury of time to stretch out these kinds of changes,” said Hillel’s president of one year, Dr. Joel Vandersluis. “But it was pretty clear that it was time for the school to recognize that the pathway it was on was not leading toward success. And with that in mind, everybody involved felt that we had the license to make dramatic changes.”

The most notable change is a partnership with The Miami Valley School, a private, nonsectarian college prep school in Washington Township. Miami Valley will serve in a consulting role to Hillel; the lower school principal of Miami Valley, Suzanne M. Powell, will also serve as Hillel’s principal and Hillel will use Miami Valley’s secular curriculum, which itself is being revised this year to include the Singapore Math program.

Vandersluis said the Hillel board will hire an administrator for the school (current principal Tom Tudor retires at the end of this school year).

“We have created a scalable set of items, mostly around curriculum and instruction that we have presented to Hillel for them to acquire from us at whatever level or need they determine,” Miami Valley Headmaster Peter Benedict said of the partnership.

Both schools see this as an opportunity for Hillel to become a feeder to Miami Valley.

“Given the size of the school (Hillel), and cooperation with MVS, we recognize that we have flexibility in choosing our administration,” Vandersluis said. “By adopting this curriculum (Miami Valley’s) and their approach, we get access to a curriculum that is under constant revision. They have the budget and experience to look at the best methods and materials at all times, something that we certainly couldn’t afford. And we’re able to provide continuity with the Sinai program, so it’s a much easier transition from Hillel Academy to MVS.”

Patti and Lee Schear established the Sinai Scholars program in 2009, which funds Jewish studies electives at Miami Valley and scholarships for Jewish teenagers to attend the school.

With the 2011-12 school year, the Sinai program is expected to encompass grades six through 12 at Miami Valley.

In a statement to the Miami Valley community, Benedict said, “MVS will provide consultative support for instruction and secular curriculum at Hillel while Hillel prepares students for future academic leadership at MVS.”

Benedict indicated that the partnership “also entails Hillel student participation in afterschool clubs, sports and other extracurriculars.”

Hillel’s secular teachers will participate in Miami Valley’s professional development training.

The Jewish day school had 26 students enrolled in kindergarten through eighth grade for the 2010-11 school year.

Vandersluis said that for the coming school year, Hillel will tighten to kindergarten through fourth grade.

“We recognized that beyond that, our numbers are very, very small,” he said.

He hopes Hillel will ultimately be able to bring back grades five and six.

“We have emerging a continuum of Jewish education (in Dayton) that starts with an excellent preschool (DJCC Early Childhood Services) offered by Jewish Federation, followed by Hillel Academy when we go back to the K to six, followed directly by the Sinai program at Miami Valley School. With the adoption of their curriculum, the ease of transition for our students will be seamless.”

An immersion approach to Judaics and Hebrew

Judaics and secular educator/consultant Candace R. Kwiatek — who teaches Judaics classes at Miami Valley in the middle and high schools as part of the Sinai program — serves on Hillel’s curriculum task force.

She and Dr. Bev Guterman, retired director of teacher education at Antioch University Midwest, focused on Hillel’s curriculum and staffing to figure out the best model for the small school.

Vandersluis said that Kwiatek, Guterman, and Rabbi Levi Simon — currently Hillel’s director of Judaics — identified the Tal AM Hebrew program as the best choice to meet the school’s needs.

“This curriculum seems to be both up and coming and the one that offers the most in kind of an immersion type approach,” Kwiatek said. “The idea is to develop our staff into Hebrew speakers in the classroom.”

Kwiatek added that Tal AM, taught in 420 elementary-school settings around the world, provides a “doorway into multiple other aspects of Jewish life: prayer, text, Israel, Jewish living, Shabbat, holidays.”

To incorporate the Tal AM program, Vandersluis said the board is “carefully reviewing our Judaic staff and will identify appropriate staff from within the school or outside who, if not previously trained in Tal AM, will be sent out to formally train in New York.”

Staffing structure

Because of the dramatic changes ahead, in April, Vandersluis told Hillel’s teachers that the school wasn’t prepared to renew their contracts and would accept job applications from current school staff and outside applicants for 2011-12.

“We’re certainly hoping that our current staff will be interested in applying for those positions,” he said. “But it would be naïve to proceed with such dramatic changes and put that load on existing staff and not allow for the recognition that not all of our staff may want to follow that direction.”

This is the second year of significant changes for Hillel.

In order to save money and increase the market for potential students, Hillel moved last summer from its campus of 37 years in Harrison Township to the third floor of Beth Abraham Synagogue in Oakwood. Vandersluis said he hopes Hillel will be able to complete the sale of the Harrison Township property by the summer; the revenue from the sale, he said, will provide an endowment fund for the school.

To address its demographic and financial issues, Hillel also combined grades this school year, bringing together kindergarten and grade one, grades two and three, five and six, and provided instruction for one eighth-grade student.

“By doing that, we had to let go of many cherished teachers,” Vandersluis said, “but at the same time we’ve been able to cut our payroll significantly and increase class size, getting the kids more social opportunity and more ability to interact in a wider environment.”

For 2010-11, Hillel also implemented individual academic plans to track each student against the Ohio Department of Education’s learning outcomes, and incorporated a web-based curriculum support program, CompassLearning Odyssey.

“That’s something the kids can access in school, mostly at home or after school, and lets them work on subjects that need some additional support or subjects that they’re particularly interested in,” he said.

To survive and thrive

Mary Rita Weissman serves on the boards of Hillel and Miami Valley; she is also incoming president of the board of Beth Abraham Synagogue.

The move to Beth Abraham, she said, “has made Hillel able to survive to this point.”

“I don’t know where Hillel was academically when I got on the board,” she said, “but I do know that some people felt that because of the structure and that some kids had special needs — not necessarily intellectual special needs but other kinds of special needs — that the secular curriculum wasn’t as robust as one might like. I think we’ve gone 180 degrees from that, because every kid has made such tremendous progress.”

Hillel Academy was established in 1962. For its first decade, the school’s location alternated between Beth Abraham and Beth Jacob Synagogue, which were then both in Dayton View. In 1973, the school moved to its own campus, in Harrison Township.

In 1977, Hillel expanded and added a high school. But declining enrollment led Hillel to close its ninth through 11th grades in 1999 and its 12th grade in 2000.

Vandersluis estimates the budget for Hillel’s 2010-11 school year will come in between $500,000 and $550,000. He expects a budget of $400,000 for the next school year.

Tuition, he said, covers about 25 percent of the budget, with most students receiving financial aid. No one is turned away for the inability to pay. Bingo accounts for another 25 percent of the budget, the Jewish Federation’s annual allocation provides more than 10 percent, with the remainder covered by contributions.

“We think we have only scratched the surface of reaching out to the donor community,” Vandersluis said. “While we have accomplished some savings, we’re also going to be spending a little bit more on new textbooks, new materials, and professional development. We already have some significant donations lined up.”

From his point of view, the school’s new mantra is, “Small School Done Right.”

Weissman said Miami Valley’s lower school principal, Suzanne M. Powell, was a staunch advocate for the new partnership.

“I don’t think it could have been possible without her,” Weissman said. “Whatever grade Hillel ends up going to, certainly there’s going to be a clear path to Miami Valley for those students who are mission appropriate and who Miami Valley can accommodate financially.

“I hope it will provide a long-term opportunity for Hillel to survive. I really think that’s our job next year: survive and thrive is what Hillel must do next year. If we can’t thrive while we’re surviving next year, I think the question of survival continues to be on the table.”