Solomon Schechter head of school Joyce Raynor said families requesting assistance have expressed a “strong desire to continue their child’s Jewish education.”
November 20, 2008
Responding to the economic crisis, the Day School Advisory Council of the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest on Nov. 10 approved a proposal to grant $100,000 in scholarship funding to day school families to assist in keeping their children in school.
Raised through the MetroWest Day School Campaign, the money comes from the JCF’s MetroWest Community Day School Fund. Of the total, $70,000 is a reallocation of previously approved grants for academic excellence; $30,000 is a new allocation.
The schools are Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union in West Orange, Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy/Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston, and Nathan Bohrer-Abraham Kaufman Hebrew Academy of Morris County in Randolph.
A Heads of School Council — made up of top administrators from the schools — determined that the schools can continue to make significant improvements in collaborative science projects and other areas, even while some funds are reallocated.
All three schools are reporting numerous calls from families in which the primary breadwinner has lost a job or business in the last two months. Families are alerting the schools — which are already significantly over-budget in scholarships — that they may need assistance for the first time or extra assistance to keep their children in school.
“This [grant] provides a measurable degree of assistance during extremely difficult times,” said Steven Levy, a member of the Day School Advisory Council, who crafted the proposal. “It also sends a strong message to the community that MetroWest is deeply committed to affordability in day school education.”
The funding follows an established standard for allocating funds — $40,000 each between the two larger schools, SSDS and Kushner, and $20,000 to HAMC.
Since the end of October, SSDS has received calls from 11 families experiencing a downturn that undermines the family’s ability to pay tuition, said head of school Joyce Raynor. “Of these, nine are families who were not already receiving tuition assistance; many waited up to three months to contact the school requesting assistance because they find it very difficult to do so.
“Some have totally exhausted their savings and are now unable to pay their living expenses or their tuition,” Raynor said. “The common thread in these conversations is the strong desire to continue their child’s Jewish education. Many expressed their sincere hope that they would be able to ‘give back’ any assistance that was provided when the economic situation improves.”
One SSDS family who had suffered a job loss and received some needed assistance wrote to the school saying, “Thank you very, very much; this takes a lot of pressure off of us now and is quite helpful. We certainly hope this is just a short-term issue.”
Kushner has faced requests from many families in similar situations, said executive director Michael Grad. “There is general fear among the parent body as to ‘what will happen if,’” he said.
“We need to calm the anxiety and work with them on an individual basis either by providing scholarships, longer payout terms, or suspension of payments on a temporary basis to be paid in the future,” said Grad.
“None of the families said they will have to pull their child from the school, because they want to work out the situation,” Grad added. “They all realize the importance of Jewish education.”
At HAMC, head of school Moshe Vaknin said, “we are starting to feel the economic strain…. Even though no family has left the school, some are asking to hold on to their tuition checks. We feel the uncertainty in people’s voices, but we hope and pray that we will weather the storm.”
“We are very grateful for the additional support to help our families.”
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