November Education News

Posted on December 1, 2010 by mmizrahi1

Both the Congregational Education Community ( November 10, 2010) and the Day School Education Community(November 17, 2010) met this month.  The Day School Education Community also held an additional open meeting on November 22, 2010.  Below is a summary of what is happening in each of the JJC Schools.

All Schools:

- Gabrielle Bubis and Kim Glasgal are co-chairing the State of the School Forum on Thursday, January 6, 2011 at 7:15pm.  This forum will showcase all of the JJC Schools.  The financial health of the schools will be shared as well.

- Koleinu Jax, a Jewish parent support group for families of children with special needs, has created a survey.  The purpose of the survey is to gather as much data as possible about the Jewish Special Needs population in Jacksonville.  If you would like to fill out a survey, you can find it at this address: https://mail.google.com/mail/#search/Adam+adamb%40jewishjacksonville.org/12c3619914b799ba

-Consecration is going to be separated for the Day School and the Religious School.  The administration of both schools and the Rabbi decided that the schools are unique and should be showcased differently. The Day School will have its Consecration Ceremony on Saturday, February 5, 2011.  The Religious School will be having their Consecration Ceremony on Friday, May 13, 2011.

-The PTA had a very busy month of October.  The Chai run was a huge success.  The money had not been counted at the time of the meeting, but it was looking like more was raised this year than last year.  March 5, 2011, the PTA is sponsoring an event at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Downtown Jacksonville.  Artwork from the students of all of the JJC Schools will be displayed and a few pieces will be auctioned off.  A play written by one of our MJGDS alumna will be featured. More information will be coming out soon.  Committees are forming.  Please contact Debbie Goldstein if you are interested in getting involved.

-Finance Policy approved by the JJC Board of Directors for past due balances:  Failure to pay an overdue balance after 60 days will result in a letter being sent.  Prior to the letter, attempts should have been made to contact a family by phone at 30days past due to make a payment arrangement.

-Schools Governance Structure:  During this year of transition, an optimal governance structure for all 3 schools is being developed.  Currently, the structure is being reveiwed by the Board of Directors of the JJC.  The Governance is moving toward having 3 separate governing bodies, one for the MJGDS, one for the JJC preschool, and one for the Religious School/high school programs.  Chair people have been chosen to begin working in this direction.  Gabrielle Bubis will be Chairing the Preschool Education  Committee, Mauri Mizrahi will be chairing the MJGDS Education Committee, and Faye Mizrahi and Stacy Leach will be chairing the Religious/High School Education committee.  The chairpeople were chosen by the VP of Education in consultation with the principals, president of the synagogue, executive vice president of the synagogue, and director of finance and operations.  As part of the plan of working toward optimal governance, in the future, a nominating committee would be formed to choose members of all of the education communities.
-Lisa Ross is chairing the sub-committee which will be developing the evaluation process for all of our principals.  Her committee is already working and each principal/head of school will be evaluated by the end of this school year.
-The L’Dor V dor Society Annual Campaign will be kicking off in January.  Lori Schoettler and Jon Mitzmacher are running the Campaign.
-FCIS accreditation has been postponed for the Day School and Preschool until December 2011.

Martin J. Gottlieb Day School:

  • The Florida Council of Independent Schools (FCIS) had its conference in Jacksonville, Florida.  The MJGDS had the most teacher presenters of any of the schools.  Our teachers presented on how to use 21st century learning techniques in the classroom.
  • Parent/teacher conferences occured Friday, November 5, 2010.  The administration is hearing positive feedback about the new format of meeting with General Studies and Judaic Studies together.
  • Lower School Information Night was Thursday, November 18, 2010.  Many potential famililies attended.
  • Middle School Information Night is scheduled for Thursday, December 16, 2010. Attendees will hear from our Head of School, Jon Mitzmacher, our Vice Principal of Middle School, Edith Horovitz, and graduates of our program who are now in high school.  Excitingly, we will also be hosting Mark Frampton, the admissions director of the Upper School at Bolles, the AICE coordinator from Wolfson and the IB coordinators from Stanton and Paxon.  These guests will be sharing the success stories of how our graduates do in their high schools once they leave our program.  Students who have had no Day School background can be very successful at the MJGDS.
  • Representatives from the Jacksonville Jewish Federation came and spoke to the Day School Community about their annual Super Sunday Phone-a-thon on February 6, 2011.  The Federation has allocated over $100,000 a year for the last few years to the MJGDS to be used for tuition assistance.  For the second year, the Federation is challenging all of their Jacksonville recipient agencies to bring the most volunteers to make phone calls on Super Sunday.  The organization with the most volunteers, wins $1000.  Last year, the MJGDS tied for first place.  Please make an effort to volunteer and represent our school.  Andrea Mail will be heading up our core of volunteers.
  • The Day School Education Community discussed and created a proposal for 2011-2012 tuition.  Jon Mitzmacher will present the proposal to the JJC Finance Community at their next meeting Tuesday, December 7, 2010.
  • At the Open Meeting on Monday, November 22, 2010, Jon Mitzmacher emphasized that the financial aid request deadlines will be strictly enforced this year.  He also stressed that the administration  is more than willing to  help with the entire process.  He said, he will share what PSAS has recommended for tuition assistance before the tuition assistance committee meets, so there are no surprises.  If you need tuition assistance, please apply.  If you need help with any part of the process, please ask.  We want all of our families to remain part of our school family.

JJC Preschool

  • Shereen Canady shared that she is beginning to put her 2010-2011 budget together.  She will also be presenting it to the Finance Community on Tuesday, December 7, 2010.
  • Shereen attended a NACY conference in Los Angeles in in early November.  She connected with many other Jewish Preschool Administrators.  She said that one of the greatest strengths that she truly appreciated after being at the conference is the great relationship between our preschool and dayschool and religious school.
  • UNF music students are coming into the preschool and sharing music with the children.
  • Preschool conference day was Friday, November 12, 2010 and was a great success.

Bernard and Alice Selevan Religious School

-Lois Tompkins reported that the teachers are getting better at understanding and using IEPs.

-The Religious school students spent some time earlier this year at the Salzbacher Center teaching the kids there about Hannukkah.  As a result of this experience, the kids at the Salzbacher Center designed a Hannukkah card for the first time ever.  The money raised by the sale of these cards will provide food for families staying at the Salzbacher Center.  You can buy the cards in the Judaica Shop a the JJC.  There is also more information on the JJC website.

There are no Education Community Meetings Scheduled for December and the January meeting is the State of the Schools Forum which is open to anyone.  Please come out and see for yourself all of the great learning going on in our JJC Schools.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.