| Responses to Hurricane Katrina Tragedy |  | PEJE joins with the nation and the world in sending our thoughts and prayers to those affected by the natural disaster, as well as those who are involved hands-on with recovery and resettlement efforts. Below is the most recent information relevant for day schools:
The AVI CHAI Foundation announces a one-year emergency grant program providing $3,000 per student to any Jewish day school in North America that enrolls Jewish children (four-year olds through twelfth-graders) who were evacuated from New Orleans or other communities as a result of Hurricane Katrina. There is no application form. Schools that believe they qualify for support should write to AVI CHAI at 1015 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10028 and provide a list showing the name, parents' names, former and current addresses, grade level, and most recent prior school of each enrolled student. The letter/list of students should be signed by the school's principal and president. Schools should also provide a copy of the IRS determination that they qualify as a tax-exempt organization. Checks will be sent within 30 days of receipt of the request and verification of the eligibility of the listed students.
AVI CHAI has developed this grant program in the hopes of assisting day schools to attract and properly serve Katrina evacuee children. They hope that their support will encourage schools and other community organizations to be proactive in recruiting these students. For more information, please contact Michael Trapunsky at (212) 396-8850 or info@avichaina.org. RAVSAK, the Jewish Community Day School Network, is coordinating assistance for members of the New Orleans Jewish day school community, helping identify day schools that have opened their doors to students displaced from their home community and school and collecting funds to help the school.
The Jewish Education Center of Cleveland has posted a Response Curriculum focusing on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The curriculum concentrates on two key areas--our responsibilities to help others and joining together as a community to help--each contextualized with a content-focus, Jewish texts and activities.
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| PEJE Grant Applications Now Available | | Information about the PEJE Challenge Grant for Day School Growth and applications for the three grant programs are now available. Grant programs include: School Improvement Journey, Pipeline, and New School. In order to help schools understand the different grant programs and complete the applications, a series of open conference calls has been scheduled: - Which Grant is Right For Us?
Thursday, September 22 at 2 pm - Which Grant is Right for Us?
Thursday, October 27 at 1 pm - Pipeline Grant Application
Thursday, November 10 at 1 pm - School Improvement Journey Grant Application
Thursday, November 10 at 3 pm
All times are Eastern. Applicants are strongly encouraged to participate in one or more conference calls, where there will be ample opportunity to have your questions answered. The call-in number for each teleconference is 1-800-490-7515, meeting number 6922339.
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| 2006 PEJE Assembly for Jewish Day School Education | | March 19-21, 2006
 Sheraton Boston, Boston, MA
Registration will soon be underway for the 2006 PEJE Assembly for Jewish Day School Education, an unparalleled opportunity to access high-level expertise at "wholesale" prices, exchange ideas, network, and propel the day-school movement forward. The event is geared to a broad audience, including day school professionals, lay leaders, major donors, and community leaders from across North America.
The featured guest will be Ronald A. Heifetz, whose best-selling book Leadership Without Easy Answers and other writings have raised awareness of the concept and practice of adaptive leadership in the non-profit world. A gifted speaker, Heifetz is King Hussein bin Talal Lecturer in Public Leadership at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a co-founder of the School's Center for Public Leadership. He is also a day school parent. Don't miss his critical insights into giving schools the flexibility and strength to adjust to ever-changing realities.
Watch your mail for an invitation, and register on www.peje.org in the coming months.
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| MATCH Stretches New Gifts to Day Schools | | Encourage day school funders to leverage their financial impact with MATCH. This exceptional program provides a 1:2 match (50 cents for every dollar donated) for eligible grants to Jewish day schools. MATCH applies to first-time grants, as well as grants that significantly increase previous funding. Qualifying grants of $25,000 to $100,000 will be matched up to a maximum of $100,000 per school. Funders must be members of the Jewish Funders Network and can join JFN simultaneously with applying for the matching grant. For full eligibility requirements (and terms and conditions) visit www.dayschoolmatch.org. The online application deadline for MATCH is January 13, 2006.
 MATCH is a project of JFN and PEJE, funded by The AVI CHAI Foundation, Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, the Alan B. Slifka Foundation, and the Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation.
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| More Vendors, More Savings with PEJE Joint Purchasing | | | Since PEJE launched its Joint Purchasing Initiative in January 2003, more than 550 day schools have saved about $1.5 million. There is no downside to this popular program: it costs nothing to participate, and your school can save 50% or more on products and services from a growing list of trusted vendors.
New on the list: Dick Blick Art Materials, Discount School Supply, Haworth furnishings, and PEPCO science tables. Old favorites include Staples, OfficeMax, Quill School & Office Supply, School Specialty, Dell, Sico mobile furnishings, Virco furniture, Zep cleaning products, Bolton & Company insurance, Sheldon Cohen Insurance, KeyBank, and FACTS tuition management.
For more information, contact Toni Wiley.
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| Attention Board Chairs: Include Your Board Members | | | This monthly enewsletter, Hadashot V'Hidushim, is distributed broadly among day school professional and volunteer leaders, as well as to other community leaders dedicated to Jewish education. While PEJE communicates frequently with school Board Chairs, we do not include general board members in our regular distribution. We invite Board Chairs now, at the beginning of the school year, to make sure your board members are receiving this publication. There are a number of ways for you to subscribe your members: - Forward them this issue and instruct them to follow the link at bottom right that says, "Join Our Mailing List"
- Direct your board members to the PEJE website where they can review past issues and subscribe via links on the Publications/Newsletter page
- Send us a listing of the email addresses of your board members. We will add them to the distribution of this enewsletter. Note: we recommend confirming with your board members before selecting this method in order to avoid adding someone who would prefer not to be on our email distribution.
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| From MyJewishLearning.com: The Use and Abuse of Speech | | |  As your students know, it's wrong to spread falsehoods about others. But what about telling a hurtful truth? Where does reporting end and leshon hara begin? Are "little white lies" okay?
Learn what Jewish law says about the ethical choices we make thousands of times each day--every time we speak. Quizzes, bibliographies, explanations, and other resources provide eye-opening lessons for students and school professionals alike. Read "The Theology, Philosophy, and Ethics of Speech" on MyJewishLearning.com.
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| | Day School Growth and Excellence: Summary of Peer YardstickTM Recommendations Now Online | |
 The much-anticipated Executive Summary of the Day School Peer Yardstick -- including recommendations for boosting enrollment--is now posted on the PEJE website.
Last year PEJE collaborated with Sacha Litman of Measuring Success, Inc. and the denominational day school networks to create the Day School Peer Yardstick management tool. The goal: to accustom schools to the practice of tracking data and to begin to identify factors associated with growing schools, showing schools how they compare to norms, and helping school leaders determine specific ways they can work to grow enrollment in their school. After 110 day schools submitted comprehensive data about their institutions, Measuring Success analyzed the information. From this analysis emerged correlations--some unexpected--between school characteristics and enrollment growth. These "key indicators" of enrollment growth, and the resulting implications and recommendations for schools, are outlined in the Executive Summary. As the Yardstick project gathers data in future years with more schools participating, the data will be more robust and these initial indicators will be tested and confirmed or disproven.
Two surprising indicators: A larger offering of after-school activities and sports programs is strongly associated with higher enrollment. Likewise, larger--not smaller--class size is associated with larger enrollment. The summary's other enrollment indicators and recommendations center on so-called feeder schools, tours, graduate placement, class size, pricing, fundraising sources, new buildings, middle school divisions, student entry points, and extracurricular programs. Each school that submitted data for the Yardstick received two customized reports comparing the school's enrollment indicators with peer benchmarks in the areas of admission, recruitment, attrition prevention, placement, fundraising, financial management, and environmental factors. The customized reports help schools: a) make decisions based on data versus anecdotal information; and b) focus their enrollment efforts where they should have the greatest impact. This month PEJE is conducting a series of conference calls in collaboration with Measuring Success to enable schools to discuss findings and management implications.
Thanks to the Peer Yardstick, "we were able to learn so much about ourselves in the context of other schools," says Anna Popp, Director of Admissions at the Ann and Nate Levine Academy, a Solomon Schechter School, in Dallas, Texas. "Now we know where to put our efforts. We're excited to do it again this year. The longer you track data, the more visible trends become." Whether or not you participated in the Peer Yardstick, keep tracking your school's numbers. PEJE and Measuring Success will issue revised data-collection forms to all day schools next spring. This is an ideal opportunity for Yardstick schools to monitor their progress and for other schools to take the first step toward higher enrollment. There is no charge for participating in the program.
For more information on the Peer Yardstick, please contact Bonnie Hausman, PEJE Research and Evaluation Program Officer. |
| | | | | Related Resources InterfaithFamily.com Feature on Day Schools The September 6 issue of InterfaithFamily.com's web magazine focuses on interfaith families and Jewish day schools, with background information and first-person reflections. In connection with the October 4 issue that continues the conversation, InterfaithFamily.com is compiling a national directory of day schools that welcome interfaith families. If you would like your school listed in this resource, please email Heather Martin by September 23 with your school name, address, phone number, fax number, web site (if available), contact person, email address, short description of the school, and a brief statement about the school's attitudes/policies regarding children from interfaith families. To be sure you receive the October 4 issue, subscribe to InterfaithFamily.com. Israeli Dance Institute Workshops and Conferences The Israeli Dance Institute offers workshops for Israeli dance teachers and Jewish educators, exploring the importance and integration of dance in Jewish education. "Moving Out of the Box" (November 6, 2005, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA) features instruction by nationally renowned Israeli dancers and the participation of local children. "Israeli Folk Dance in Jewish Education: The Added Dimension" (November 10-13, 2005, Temple Israel, Albany, NY) features dance curricula, dance repertoires, celebrating holidays and traditions via dance, opportunities for certification, the participation of local children, a dancing oneg, and a dance workshop and party with acclaimed dancers Ruth Goodman and Danny Pollock. Nitaznim & Chaverim B'Ivrit Training The only US training this year for the Nitzanim & Chaverim B"Ivrit Hebrew language education program is taking place September 18-20 at the Westchester/Fairfield Hebrew Academy in Greenwich, CT. There are two parallel three-day workshops for teachers new to the program and teachers already using the program. For more information, contact Janet Gat at 203-863-9663 or Amy Erani. | | | |
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