Last Wednesday we had our 2nd MJGDS Education Community meeting. Below is a summary of the topics discussed.
Each of the Sub-committees and the Head of School gave reports.
Head of School Report-
- Florida Council of Independent Schools (FCIS) is having its annual conference here in Jacksonville, FL this November. The Martin J. Gottlieb Day School has the largest number of presenters at the conference. Our teachers will be presenting mostly on 21st Century Learning in the classroom.
- Jon, Talie and Mauri will be attending the PEJE conference in Baltimore, Maryland, Oct 24-26. This conference convenes every 3 years and it is the largest gathering of Jewish Day School professionals and lay leaders.
- The school has successfully transitioned from communicating with parents via Edline to communication through class blogs.
- Benchmarks and Standards for every grade will be published by January 2011.
- Parent University, a series of classes for parents, are taking place on Tuesday mornings and Wednesday evenings. This education series, taught by Jon Mitzmacher, is an opportunity for our parents to come together as a community and learn.
- Academic assessments have been completed for all students. Process and communication are in motion to help all students meet their highest potential.
- Minds in Motion, a program which addresses students’ behavioral, social, and emotional needs is coming into the school one and a half days each week.
Development Sub-Committee Report-
- Development is the work of the entire MJGDS Education Community. Our job is to build relationships. The ultimate goal is to promote and raise money for our school. This can be achieved through endowments, bequest gifts (Create a Jewish Legacy), annual campaigns (LDVDS), fundraising events, or a combination of all of them.
- This year our main focus will be our annual campaign, the L’Dor V Dor Society annual giving campaign supporting Jewish Education at the Jacksonville Jewish Center.
- The LDVDS annual campaign will kick off in January 2011.
Marketing Admissions Sub-committee Report-
- Admissions calendar was presented. Upcoming dates to remember:
- November 18, 2010- k-5 information night
- November 22, 2010- Day School Education Community Open Meeting
- December 16, 2010- Middle School information night
- January 3, 2011- MJGDS registration packets sent out
Finance/Budget Sub-Committee Report-
- The community looked at the adjusted budget for the 2010-2011 school year.
- The community reviewed what the LIFT program is. LIFT is a grant offered to all kindergarten, 1st grade and 6th grade students. These grades were chosen because they are natural entry points into the school.
- At this sub-committee’s next meeting, they will create a 2011-2012 tuition proposal for the Day School Education Community to review at the November meeting.
- November 22, 2010, the Day School Education community will have an open meeting. One of the topics of discussion will be the complete process of financial aid, from application to award.
Head Support/Evaluation Sub-committee-
- This sub-committee is in the beginning stages of designing the process and documentation required to successfully evaluate our Head of School.
- Job responsibilities are being fine tuned.
- Timeline is being created
- Surveys for parents and teachers will be created
- The Head of School’s self evaluation, Rabbi, Director of Finance and Operations, parents and teacher input will all be part of the annual review process.
PTA Report-More detailed information will be distributed by all of the schools
- Friday, October 29, 2010-All Schools shabbat dinner. Wear your team colors in celebration of the FL/Ga game that weekend
- Monday, November 1, 2010-Evening PTA meeting at the home of Dave and Carrie Bielski
- Sunday, November 7, 2010-Chai Family Fun Run and Fall Festival
Thank you to the members of the DS education community. We have begun such good work for our school.