Yeshivat He'Atid is thrilled to announce that due to increased demand, we plan to open a third pre-K! Please let your friends and family know that there are still spots available. Interested families should contact Ora Kornbluth at info@yeshivatheatid.org.
We are extremely pleased to welcome Ora Kornbluth to the Yeshivat He'Atid family. As Director of Business and Operations, she will be handling all of the day-to-day operations of the school. Ora brings to Yeshivat He'Atid nearly two decades of experience working in Jewish day schools. She worked for many years as the Director of Student Activities at Bat Torah Flatow Yeshiva High School in Paramus, N.J, where she had administrative responsibilities. She has also served as the COO of Sensation NY, a pediatric OT and sensory gym located on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. For several summers, she has worked as an Assistant Head Counselor for Camp Regesh. A sports lover at heart, Ora is an Official Statistician for CBS Sports and is part of the game day support staff for the National Football League. She currently serves as a Councilwoman representing the borough of Bergenfield, N.J. She holds a bachelor of arts in economics from Yeshiva University.
Yeshivat He’Atid is thrilled to announce that we have been selected a recipient of the Orthodox Union’s national “DAY SCHOOL AFFORDABILITY CHALLENGE GRANTS.” The goal of the $150,000 in collective challenge grants is to develop “innovative and replicable solutions to address day school affordability.” The grants were announced on Monday at the two-day “Summit on the Affordability of Jewish Education” arranged by the OU to stimulate discussion and planning on dealing with this critical issue in Orthodox life.
A brief description of our grant proposal: Yeshiva He’Atid 21st Century Judaic Studies Curricula Project, Bergenfield, NJ -- Yeshiva He’Atid is anticipated to open in the fall of 2012. The school‘s goal is to create a new model that incorporates 21st century educational methods to increase the quality of education while also reducing tuition costs. The OU grant will be targeted toward the creation of a blended learning Judaic curriculum for K-2nd grade, which we believe can be used by other day schools throughout North America.
Check out the other challenge grant recipients below or read the official press release here:
· Project Education Tuition Affordability Campaign, Project Education Council, Brooklyn, NY --The OU will fund program development and marketing for the campaign to change the culture of giving within the Sephardic community in Brooklyn, resulting in more dollars staying within the community for Jewish education. According to its grant application, Project Education is a “new non-profit corporation in the Sephardic community with a mission of finding solutions that will alleviate tuition education costs” in a “community that has more than 10,000 children enrolled in more than a dozen yeshivot in New York and New Jersey.”
· Corporate Citizenship, Denver Academy of Torah, Denver, CO -- The OU’s funds will be used to match a foundation grant for website development and graphic design of the Corporate Citizenship program which would allow businesses to give five percent to the Denver Academy of Torah (DAT) from business generated through the program. Unlike traditional scrip programs, this initiative uses other business, like mortgage bankers and real estate agents. According to the application, DAT “has secured relationships with 11 businesses thus far,” which include two supermarkets, two realtors, a jeweler, an accountant, a mortgage broker and an investment advisor, as well as an online clothing store, meat store and tricycle store.”
· Hillel Without Borders, The Samuel Scheck Hillel Community Day School, North Miami Beach, FL -- The OU will fund afterschool and adult education activities at the school. The goal of these programs is to bring community members into the school with the goal of eventually increasing community involvement with the school. According to the grant application, “Hillel Without Borders is a multi-phased initiative aimed at reenergizing the Jewish Education Support Circle of our community…by opening Hillel’s borders to the greater Jewish community of Miami Dade, allowing us to share and maximize the utilization of our valued resources (human, intellectual, physical and financial),” thus strengthening the local Jewish community.
· Edollars, Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA -- The OU will provide funding for enhancement of the Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh’s current “timebanx” program, which allows parents to volunteer at the school and receive monetized credits, in lieu of tuition for their volunteer commitment. The OU grant will be targeted to mutually agreeable enhancements to the system that can assist other schools interested in implementing the program. In its application, the Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh notes that “schools can save up to $250,000 in expenses per year in payroll areas such as the IT department, substitute teachers, lunch monitors, landscaping, building maintenance, administrative assistants, etc.” The program “has the direct dollar value of $50-$100 per hour. Parents earning that amount are receiving its exact value in exchange for tuition costs.”
· The National Jewish Cooperative Day School Project, The Jewish Cooperative School, Hollywood, FL -- The OU grant will fund production of an online “Jewish Cooperative Day School Handbook,” that will assist parents across the country to form and manage their own Jewish cooperative day school or for day schools which seek to increase parent participation within their schools. “A Cooperative Day School is one in which parents are required to bear the burdens of a school’s costs collectively and directly,” the grant application explains. “There is no more efficient way to reduce Day School tuition costs while maintaining high educational standards than to empower motivated parents.” This handbook will describe the experience of this school in creating and maintaining a cooperative structure.
· The Online Resource Room, Scranton Hebrew Day School, Scranton, PA -- The OU will provide funding for eight students in four day schools for six months to allow demonstration that providing distance learning for special needs youngsters can be successful and cost saving. The program began as a pilot project last year at the Scranton Hebrew Day School in which its resource room director “learned with six students across the country online in their homes as well as in school. In each live session,” the teacher “was able to replicate the quality and interactive techniques of my regular resource room… The Online Resource Room will literally reach out to every geographic area of the country irrespective of the size or location of the student’s community.” The OU’s Rabbi Isaacs, the grant program’s administrator, added, “We want to monitor the children to see if distance learning results in cost savings for the schools while meeting the needs of its students.”
This week's Jewish Standard article focuses on Yeshivat He'Atid. We'd like to clarify that Yeshivat He'Atid's educational model leverages technology with the ability to personalize the learning experience. We are NOT replacing teachers with computers -- we strongly believe that teachers are our most important asset. This technology, along with project-based learning and peer-to-peer learning, will make it easier for teachers to facilitate the application of learning. Our cost-savings are three-fold: 1. No baked-in scholarships, 2. we're able to reach more children inside the classroom, and 3. less administrative overhead.
You can read the entire article here. A related sidebar about educational technology can be read here.
Excerpts:
"Yeshivat He’atid, meaning school of the future, plans to open in Bergenfield next fall with a tuition substantially below those of other area day schools. The savings derives from the school relying on fewer teachers and more computers for instruction.
Gralla is currently director of special services at Davis Renov Stahler Yeshiva High School for Boys in Woodmere, N.Y., where he also teaches.
Last year, he served as head counselor of Camp Kaylie in the Catskills, which brought together children with developmental disabilities and those with regular abilities in an integrated camp setting.
Gralla points to two aspects of this work relevant to the new school.
“It was an integrated camp not only in the level of abilities, but on the religious spectrum, as well,” he said at a school open house held at Congregation Rinat Yisrael in Teaneck earlier this month. The Orthodox camp had counselors with knitted yarmulkes, suede yarmulkes, black hats, and even one counselor with chasidic garb, said Gralla.
Gralla said this proves the possibility of creating a school that does not need to pigeonhole itself to one variety of modern Orthodoxy, but that stresses unity as well as love of Torah, character development, generosity, and a love of the State of Israel.
It is the inclusion of a variety of abilities in the program, however, that may be most influential.
While Yeshivat He’atid is not targeted at special education students, Gralla and the schools other leaders believe that educational technology will enable it to offer a personalized, tailor-made curriculum.
“That’s advantageous for every student, regardless of whether it would be appropriate for them to be in a resource room, in an enrichment room, or in a regular room,” he said.
The Yeshivat He’atid model envisions students rotating between individualized computer-based instruction; interaction with teachers individually or in small groups; and small groups of students working together.
“This is not a no-frills version of education,” Gralla said. “This is not a design to cut corners and save a few bucks. This is creating 21st century thinkers, empowering them to succeed in life as collaborative learners, critical thinkers, and problem solvers.”
Because computer lessons will replace classroom lectures, teachers will have time to directly engage small groups of students. “Enrichment and remedial work gets done inside the classroom. It requires much, much fewer teachers than in the traditional model,” he said.
The school plans to have 20 students in each kindergarten and pre-kindergarten classroom, and 22 to 26 students in the first and second grade classrooms. Despite the larger class sizes, there will be fewer assistant teachers helping out.
At the open house, the school announced that its tuition will be $7,990 for pre-kindergarten, and $8,990 for the higher classes, inclusive of all fees and charges. The combination of tuition and extra fees can be nearly double that at some established area day schools.
Gralla looks to his seven children, ranging in age from three to 14, for insights to the world of early childhood education and the world of technology. Their experience in the world of computer learning, smart phones, and video bar mitzvah presentations has had a profound impact on the 39-year-old educator.
He tells of being in Manhattan with his teenaged twins, and them instantly locating nearby activities on their smartphones.
He tells of his eight-year-old asking, “What does Hashem do all day?” [Hashem is an indirect reference to God.] As Gralla reached for an answer, the boy said, “That’s okay, Daddy. I’ll Google it.” (Not in fact a good idea: Google’s top result on the query is an apparently Christian web site. On some questions, father really does know best.)
He also tells of one of his first-grade twins saying that the most fun she has is in computer class — where, in fact, “she is having interactive fun, but engaging in meaningful, significant learning,” he said.
Gralla entered the world of education as a Talmud scholar and rabbinic student at Yeshiva University.
“I really enjoy learning Torah very much,” he said. “I found I enjoyed teaching others. I liked preparing, giving over the material, and people’s questioning.”
When an opportunity arose at a special education program at YU’s MTA high school — his own alma mater — “I interviewed, got in, and didn’t look back,” he said.
What excites him about Yeshiva He’atid?
“Here we can easily pesonalize the curriculum for every single student,” he said. “They can go home and continue the work. Parents can follow their kid’s strengths and weaknesses.”
“In a traditional classroom, you have to make a test, have to mark the test, you have to enter all the grades, you have to tweak the lesson plan on a daily basis. The online learning model eliminates everything and allows teachers to do what they want to do, what they’re supposed to do, which is to facilitate learning.”
Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of The Jewish Week, writes about Yeshivat He'Atid in his column this week. Read the story in its entirety here.
Nearly 400 young parents attended an open house this week for a Modern Orthodox yeshiva, planning to open in Bergenfield, N.J., next fall, that will not only offer a bargain-rate tuition but promises to be a model for Jewish education in the 21st century.
And the still-to-be-opened school, called Yeshivat He’atid (Hebrew for “Yeshiva of the Future”) has apparently already inspired one still-anonymous donor, representing several wealthy businessmen interested in the effort, to form AJE, Affordable Jewish Education, a fund with the goal of starting schools like Yeshivat He’Atid around the country.
Gershon Distenfeld, He’atid’s executive vice president (a lay position) told the enthusiastic, overflow audience at the Teaneck shul hosting the open house, “We are not here to discuss the tuition crisis; we’re here to talk about the solution.”
The school, which is expected to open with up to 150 children in pre-kindergarten through second grades, will offer a “blended learning” model, featuring individualized, “project-based” education that combines computers and face-to-face instruction.
He’atid’s model comes as many schools, public and private, are stepping up their use of technology in the classroom, both as a cost-cutting measure and a way of individualizing instruction.
A new low-cost and high-tech Jewish day high school, the Pre-Collegiate Learning Center of New Jersey, just opened this fall in East Brunswick, with 20 students and a $5,000 tuition. That school, which like He’atid has received funding from the Avi Chai Foundation, combines online classes with face-to-face instruction, in-person mentoring and courses taught via videoconference.
However, some observers have noted there is only minimal evidence so far demonstrating the effectiveness of new, high-tech approaches, and have expressed reservations about small children spending too much time in front of a computer screen.
Having already achieved more than half of its planned enrollment, He’atid is offering a $7,990 tuition for pre-K, and $8,990 for K-2, with none of the additional charges like registration fee, building fund or dinner obligation, that are common in other day schools.
Rabbi Netanel Gralla, the newly hired principal of the school, told The Jewish Week that “savings come from the efficiencies of the educational model,” where teachers will have some administrational responsibilities, and will deal with remediation and enrichment in the classroom.
“Our educational model can personalize and customize so that students can learn at their own pace,” said Rabbi Gralla, who is currently director of special services at a yeshiva high school for boys in Woodmere, L.I. He also served as head counselor this past summer at Camp Kaylie in Woodsboro, N.Y., said to be “the first integrated camp with equal numbers of typical campers and those with developmental disabilities,” according to his bio on the He’atid website.
He emphasized that his operative word is “achdut,” or unity.
The new principal said he was excited by the prospects of putting into practice a new model school that can make full use of the fast-paced advances in technology and educational content.
“The key point is that we are not offering a no-frills institution,” Rabbi Gralla said. “We are not cutting corners. Our goal is to create analytical thinkers while maintaining a sense of community and personal responsibility.”
Distenfeld said there was “a sizable amount of money” set aside for the Bergenfield school, which will rent space in an existing school with a playground, and will have a separate scholarship fund so that those parents paying tuition will not be burdened by extra dollars to subsidize those in financial need.
He said students would be fluent in Hebrew by the end of the eighth grade.
A small group of young professionals are the backbone of the new school, volunteering their services in recent months to plan the educational and financial components necessary to launch. One member of the board said small meetings with young Bergen County families concerned about the high, and sometimes prohibitive cost of Jewish day schools, created interest in the new model.
More than $100,000 was raised from “typical” families over the summer, enough to convince a wealthy, anonymous donor that there was a real interest and need for an affordable but high-quality day school.
Distenfeld said that while he and the board initially thought the strongest asset of the new school would be its affordable rates, they now believe it is, instead, the blended learning model of combining face-to-face learning and interactive technology.
“We discovered that you can have your cake and eat it, too,” he said, asserting that the new model of education offered the added benefit of significant cost saving.
With the help of a grant from the Avi Chai Foundation, a proponent of incorporating new technology advances in day schools, Yeshivat He’Atid commissioned Rebecca Tomasini, CEO of The Alvo Institute, active in the education reform movement, and Randolph Ross, general studies principal of the North Shore Hebrew Academy in Great Neck, as educational consultants.
The Alvo Institute is a think tank specializing in individualized learning.
One innovation for the new school is to have key data collected and analyzed so that each child can be given individualized assignments to strengthen skills needing extra attention.
Acknowledging that other day schools in the area have expressed concern about competition from the new yeshiva, Distenfeld said, “our goal is not to hurt any of the existing schools. We’d be happy” if they all followed the new model.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “if we as a community can’t lower tuition, community growth will slow. There will be fewer children in day schools,” and families will be having “fewer children.”
Associate Editor Julie Wiener contributed to this report.
