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Friday July 27, 2007

$50 million campaign for schools ‘raises the bar’

by johanna ginsberg
new jersey jewish news

whippany, n.j. | New Jersey’s largest Jewish federation has launched a $50 million communitywide campaign that is being hailed as a groundbreaking collaborative effort in support of Jewish day school education.

Eleven local families have committed $13.5 million toward the recently launched MetroWest Day School Campaign. Under the plan, the three day schools in the federation’s service area will retain their own endowment funds while drawing on a community fund and a matching pool.

Organizers said the goal is to make day schools more affordable and offer a standard of academic excellence equal to any private school in the area.

The ambitious undertaking raises the bar nationwide.

The campaign is being coordinated by the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest, the planned giving and endowment arm for United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ. The $24 million federation serves Essex and Morris counties, and has its roots in Newark.

“We want to increase enrollment at all three schools,” said Kim Hirsh, endowment development officer of the MetroWest foundation, who will staff the campaign. “We want to make day school available to all Jewish families. We have learned that enrollment is not just a matter of affordability; it’s also a matter of academic excellence.”

The three schools are the Orthodox Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy/Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston; the Conservative Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union, with campuses in West Orange and Cranford; and the nondenominational Nathan Bohrer-Abraham Kaufman Hebrew Academy of Morris County in Randolph.

The campaign is the latest in a series of high-profile projects in support of day schools, according to Rabbi Joshua Elkin, executive director of the Boston-based Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education, a partner in the local project.

Elkin said that the depth of the collaboration and the amount of money being raised for just three schools is unprecedented. “This is part of a wave of something new, but this is bigger than any other effort out there. A goal of $50 million is a significant amount of money for three schools; very significant.

“It’s also very significant that federation has dedicated staff to this project. In that sense it’s pace-setting.” The campaign “raises the bar substantially as to what is possible,” he said.

Similar projects nationally include a $45 million gift for excellence in Boston’s day schools, a $50 million campaign to help reduce tuition in Chicago-area day schools, and $20 million for tuition assistance in Cleveland.

But these areas have more than three schools to serve, according to Elkin.

The new effort moves day school education “to the front burner of the community,” a shift he said has been occurring slowly around the country over the last 10 years.

Part of that shift has been driven by studies showing that those with a day school education are more likely to demonstrate connections with Jewish life into adulthood, from marrying Jews to affiliating with synagogues.

The three participating schools have indicated that the way the funds are structured was critical in securing their commitment and participation. The schools will design their own tuition reduction and academic enhancement programs, but will also take part in communitywide initiatives funded through the Community Fund.

“Middle-income people could not afford to send their kids,” said Jerry Gottesman, chairman of Edison Properties, a real estate, parking and storage business. “It was either kids on scholarship or the children of dentists and doctors. There was no middle ground.”

Funds from the Gottesmans enabled the Hebrew Academy to begin implementing academic enhancement projects. Last fall the academy was named a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence by the U.S. Department of Education.

“Our open houses usually draw two to three families; this year we’ve had 15 to 20,” said Naomi Bacharach, the school’s director of marketing and development. “The interest level in our school is soaring.”

Administrators at the Schechter and Kushner schools say they have families whose children either leave or don’t apply due to tuition costs.

“Consider a family making $200,000 with four kids in day school,” said Kushner Executive Director Michael Grad. “The tuition bill can be more than $60,000. Can they make it?

“If they were making $50,000 it wouldn’t be an issue,” he said, because a family in that financial situation would be getting assistance.

Kushner has seen its enrollment drop from 847 students to 747 in the last five years, which Grad called a “significant” change, one he believes is due at least in part to rising tuition.

Schechter families face similar financial challenges, said Head of School Joyce Raynor.

“We have anecdotal evidence of people who say, ‘We’re leaving. Please understand we love the school but our financial situation has changed’ or ‘We’re struggling with three children in the school’ or ‘I’ve lost my job.’

“Where do they go? They go to public school.”

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