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April 16, 2009
As day schools begin preparing for the 2009-10 academic year, they are bracing for rising requests for tuition assistance, dropping enrollment, and renewed interest in public school, even among Orthodox families.
Each of the local day schools is considering some combination of cutting budgets, limiting non-classroom programs, laying off staff, and reducing salaries.
But the schools also are facing challenges and finding solutions based on factors specific top their student bodies and financial situations.
Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy/Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School, the Orthodox yeshiva in Livingston, has taken a proactive approach, sending a letter to parents and guardians in March outlining the measures the school is taking to rein in the budget.
The letter also informs parents of the school’s commitment to reduce tuition by $200 per year, despite fiscal challenges. Tuition at the lower school ranges from almost $11,000 to almost $15,000; at the upper school, it is close to $20,000.
“In this economic environment, parents have a lot of concerns about whether they can afford the tuition,” said Kushner copresident Ed Zughaft in an interview with NJJN. “They’re looking at charter schools and other options. We’re trying to do our part by trying not to accept the trend of an annual increase in tuition. While the dollar amount is not significant, it is our attempt to make clear that we understand the status quo is not acceptable.”
The letter, said Zughaft, was addressed to those feeling deep anxiety amid the economic slump.
“Public school is a real threat even in Orthodox circles now because the [economic] problem is so significant,” he said.
The letter eschews sugar coating the situation and plainly lays out the salary and benefits that will be cut at the highest administrative levels at the school. It also describes layoffs across the staff, consolidation of faculty, aggressive fund-raising, and the potential sale of part the school’s property, including its ball fields.
The letter also announced a decision to drop the $450,000 subsidized lunch program.
Administrators and board members say they crafted these cuts to enable the school to increase tuition assistance in addition to lowering tuition.
For the coming year, the school has budgeted $1.45 million for tuition assistance out of a $13.5 million budget, which represents an increase of 15-20 percent over previous years.
The coming year will also see a tuition subvention program for middle-income parents.
This year, about 33 percent of the 700 students received some kind of tuition assistance.
“We are trying for a model where parents below a certain income level will get a grant of ‘x’ number of dollars across the board,” said Zughaft. But, he acknowledged, the cuts will require that there be a heavy dose of volunteerism.
Hebrew Academy
Nathan Bohrer-Abraham Kaufman Hebrew Academy of Morris County, the nondenominational community day school in Randolph, has a certain level of protection because of its heavily endowed tuition subvention program, administrators said.
The program caps tuition for middle-class families at between $6,000 and $7,500. (Full tuition is approximately $14,000.) Funds for tuition subvention are in addition to traditional scholarships offered to families unable to pay at all.
So far, enrollment figures at HAMC match those of previous years.
“A lot has to do with our affordability plan,” said Naomi Bacharach, the school’s director of marketing and development. Tuition assistance is already up for the 2008-09 year, and Bacharach said she expects scholarships to rise from 19 to 22 percent of the student body for the 2009-10 year, with an accompanying drop in tuition subvention from 35 to 32 percent.
“We have parents who have lost their jobs,” she said.
To accommodate the increasing need for scholarships, the school has reduced administrative costs by cutting staff and certain positions. There have been no cuts in salary or benefits.
As a result, said Bacharach, “we’ll have to be a little more volunteer oriented.”
Like the other area schools, HAMC insists that classrooms will not be affected in terms of quality or quantity — at least not “so far,” said Bacharach.
Tuition will rise 4 percent, on par with typical yearly increases. Like the other schools, HAMC has become more aggressive in its fund-raising, increasing its annual campaign goals.
“We’re asking donors to step up to the plate,” said Bacharach. “People who can give know we need more now.”
“We will definitely come out okay,” she added. “A lot has to do with the fact that our affordability program is endowed. Otherwise, we’d be in trouble.”
Solomon Schechter
Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union, the Conservative movement day school, has seen an increase in demand for tuition assistance of more than $600,000 beyond the $1.4 million the school distributed for 2008-09, a 35 percent increase.
Of this increase, approximately $300,000 has been awarded to families with a temporary change in their financial circumstances (such as a job loss), according to Donna Oshri, director of marketing and communications at the West Orange school.
Ninety percent of current students are enrolled for the coming year, a figure consistent with previous years. However, there has been a decline in new applications, primarily in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.
“We are not turning away any student based on ability to pay,” said Oshri. “Every qualified student will get tuition assistance. We will find a way to do it.”
At the same time, she outlined a specific and limited tuition subvention program that provides for 20 high school grants of $5,000 each and 10 middle school grants of $2,000 each.
As at the other schools, Schechter is looking for new ways to raise money and has created an alumni campaign that raised $12,000 in one week through gifts ranging from $36 to $3,000. The school is also organizing a separate campaign for tuition assistance.
Schechter has not made any decisions yet with regard to budget cuts. “We are currently examining our operations at all levels,” said Oshri. “We are still in the process of determining exactly what cost reductions will be made. However, we can say that every area of our operations will be streamlined,”
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