As I have reported to this board at past meetings, The Central Agency
for Jewish Education initiated a new educational collaborative task
force which combined lay and professional leaders from the Conservative
congregations, Solomon Schechter Day School, The afternoon hebrew
school, and the Mid-continent region of United Synagogue. Through this
very broad -based task force we explored both existing and new models of Jewish education for the purpose of revealing strengths and weaknesses and testing ideas that could lead to better our Jewish learning and educational programs. The themes were centered on change and moving towards excellence on education.

Meanwhile, at BSKI we had some more specific needs. We were in need of an Education Director and we asked our education committee to reorganize and energize itself towards that goal.

We also were in the midst of developing a strategic plan. Our own task
force on Education was charged with: How can BSKI improve its
educational programs?
They responded with the following recommendations:
1. Establish BSKI educational curriculum within the United Synagogue
Framework of Excellence.
2. Develop plans fro teacher recruitment and establish a management
position to oversee staff.
3. Upgrade our physical plant and create an environment that is more
conducive to education
4. Community Involvement: find out what was going on tint he community
relative to Jewish Educational programs and to communicate that to our
congregates.

A pilot program that addresses these concerns:

Since February's CAJE Task force meeting, I have been involved in a
series of talks with Shaare Zedek's education chair, Beth Levy. Beth and
I sat down together and compared notes and wish lists. We have had
several subsequent conversation, meetings and back and forth e-mail.
Both of our congregations seem to have far more similarities than
differences. We were both in need of hiring a new religious school
director. Both of our congregations had experienced declining
enrollments. We are geographically close. We both have excellent rabbis
who are also excellent educators, who also were involved participants in
the CAJE task force. We both have the added support of talented
hazzanim and experienced, veteran education directors (who both have
interim status). We both have to hire and compete for a small pool of
teachers. We shared similar educational goals. We had good curriculum
but fell short of expectations when trying to implement a program with
limited resources and part time administrators. We both felt a
disconnect, overlap or inconsistencies between hebrew school and Sunday school. Our students did just fine attending hebrew school together and Shabbatons regardless of which campus it was on.

Our conversations quickly developed into what if...
What if we merged our religious schools into one ? What would that look
like? where would it be? Who would run it?
What if we had one Strong East campus? What if we could hire one really
strong person, committed specifically to the needs of our program and
our members and our students?
What if CAJE decided they no longer could afford and East and West
campus?
What if we had a joint school board or commission represented equally by both congregations?
What if we had both Rabbis involved and committed to improving education through his initiative?

During Pesach, we met with CAJE and rabbis Fasman and MIller. We took a closer look at our short and long term objectives, our curriculums,
discussed physical facilities, staffs, our boards, our congregational
cultures and coordinated our efforts with CAJE. We examined potential
conflicts while keeping our focus on the strengths and areas of
agreement. We found that we had even further grounds for agreement and received significant support from CAJE, represented by Jeff Lasday and Maxine Weil. We realized that this proposal gained further strength
through their commitment, support and leadership.

Our objectives: Excellence in Education, Preserve and strengthen Jewish
education for Eastern Conservative congregations, work towards the
integration of religious and hebrew school programs and with success
taking a look at further integration of all Conservative educational
programs.