TORONTO — Parents and staff of the Dr. Abraham Shore She’arim Hebrew Day School reacted with dismay, confusion and – in some cases – anger to last week’s announcement that the school will close in June, and that talks are in progress for its students to attend an existing Jewish day school next fall.
Under the new arrangement, students would be in a separate program that would address their special learning needs under the auspices of another school, which officials have yet to name.
“The sad conclusion is that [She’arim] in its current format is not financially viable,” Sidney Braun, She’arim’s co-president, said at a meeting last Wednesday night at the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre (BJCC).
“We’re carrying an accumulated deficit from previous years… It would be an irresponsible act on our part to continue in the current format.”
Braun is one of five members of a joint management committee that was formed earlier this year to work with She’arim.
The decision was made by the school’s board based on a recommendation from the joint management committee, consisting of two representatives each of She’arim and of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, as well as Paul Shaviv, director of education of the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto.
She’arim, which was established 27 years ago, is housed in rented premises at the BJCC, which is slated to be demolished and replaced starting in 2009.
The school serves 75 students from Grade 1 through Grade 8 with learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and mild forms of autism.
At its peak two years ago, She’arim had 97 students. This year, 25 students will graduate, leaving only 50 at the school for next year. Increasingly, “feeder” day schools are attempting to address special education needs themselves, school principal Kathy Manoim, RIGHT, told The CJN.
She’arim has been dealing with funding issues for some time. Last year, it experienced a deficit that its executive director, Faigie Davids, attributed to a large 2007 graduating class and a subsequent loss of tuition.
The school, which has a $1.5-million annual budget, received cash advances from the federation’s Centre for Enhancement of Jewish Education (the Mercaz – formerly the Board of Jewish Education), so that it could pay its staff.
Robert Harlang, TOP, LEFT, who chairs the joint management committee, fielded most of the questions at the meeting. He became chair at the request of the federation, but doesn’t work for federation and is not on its board.
Parents also wanted answers from Seymour Epstein, TOP RIGHT, the federation’s senior vice-president for the Mercaz, who was seated toward the back of the room, but took the microphone at the audience’s request.
One woman expressed confusion about how the proposed changes would help, because much of the school’s financial problems have had to do with the low ratio of students to teachers at a special needs school.
Harlang said there were also factors relating to overhead, rent, the school’s ability to fundraise, and declining enrolment.
The cost of educating one child at She’arim for a year is about $20,000, Epstein said. Annual tuition is about $18,000. Epstein expects that the cost will go down under the new arrangements, but that it’s premature to say.
Last year She’arim fundraising events netted about $500,000.
But, now, “no one will give money to a sinking ship,” protested one mother.
Parents were trying to understand how things could have changed so dramatically since a December meeting, when they say they were told that the school had no debt.
“We have an operating deficit that has caught up with the school,” said Braun, adding that the school has been operating with a deficit for the past eight years.
“Our fundraising ability cannot cope with our operating costs. Every month, we are going deeper and deeper into a situation that is not sustainable.”
In December, he said, the committee was “still working toward finding a solution.”
Although month-to-month costs remain the same, the funds advanced by the federation at the beginning of the year have already been used up, Harlang said.
By the end of the school year, he said, the deficit will probably be “in the $600,000 to $700,000 range.”
One of the reasons for the timing of the board’s decision was to allow sufficient time before the start of the 2008-2009 school year to put a plan in place, Harlang said.
Many parents expressed concern about their kids returning to the type of school where they had negative experiences before starting She’arim.
“What makes you think it’s going to work now?” asked one angry parent.
Others cited social issues, including bullying and teasing.
“I would ask you, please, do not compare what the plan is for next year with anything you have experienced before your children went to She’arim,” said Epstein.
To help ease the transition, each parent and child will be interviewed, and each child’s individual education program carefully analyzed, Epstein said.
“The reason it may work,” Harlang said, “is because they’re going to take a different approach.”
He added that parents must bear in mind that the “status quo can’t continue.”
Several parents accused the Jewish community of not caring about the school.
“The [proposed new building that is to replace the BJCC] had no allowance for this school. To me the writing was on the wall years ago,” said one. “There are hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on buildings… Why aren’t we getting the money?”
“The fact is, you do get money from the federation,” Harlang replied.
“Obviously not enough,” muttered one audience member.
“Every single organization asks for more money,” Harlang said. “[The federation has] formulas, and there’s not enough for every good project to be funded.”
Some parents suggested moving the teachers as well as the students to the new location. “You have all these people with years of experience. They know what they’re doing,” said one.
Audience members also asked about the availability in the new school of the kind of non-teaching staff found at She’arim, such as social workers, psychologists and art and music therapists.
“My hope is that we can provide everything these children need,” Epstein said. “The experts we bring in, which include people already working with the children, will guide us.”
“In my heart, I can’t believe that you have really put the children first,” one father said.
Harlang and Braun stressed the importance of doing what is best for the children.
“And not just these kids,” Harlang said. “There’ll be more in future years.”
A transition team will include parents of She’arim students, said Harlang.
Shaviv, whose school takes in about nine incoming She’arim alumni a year in Grade 9, told The CJN that they have “been very well trained in techniques to compensate for their learning disabilities.”
Several parents wondered what would happen if the other school did not agree to house current She’arim students.
A few parents proposed taking the effort and money being put into closing the school and putting them into keeping it open instead, at least for one more year.
But Harlang said that, as time progressed, “we had to make a decision.”
The committee “didn’t want to come to this conclusion in May or June,” he said. “We didn’t want to come to this conclusion at all.”
One father asked, “When ever have the Jewish people decided that a budget would stop a good thing going? When [Jewish] doctors could not find a place to work, mothers did not say being a doctor is not a viable option.
“We built our own hospital,” he said.
Rabbi Joseph Kelman, a founder of She’arim, told parents that he wanted them to help him raise money so that the school could remain open.
“I realize that we may have to close, but my feeling was: What’s the rush? Let’s give the community a chance. I’m hoping the Toronto Jewish community will help out and prevent the closing,” he told The CJN the day after the meeting.
One mother said her son, who had behavioural issues related to his learning disability, “began to transform” the first day he came to She’arim.
Epstein told parents that there are “models” other than the She’arim approach that have worked successfully in other cities.
At the meeting, Manoim lauded the teachers, who she said put their concern for the students “at the top of their agenda,” over and above their own now-uncertain future.
Her voice breaking, Manoim said she and her staff “are totally committed to working with the Mercaz and the federation to make this transition the most comfortable and efficient one possible.”
Howard English, spokesperson for the federation and the Mercaz, told The CJN following the meeting that “we’re committed to the successful conclusion of the [2007-2008] school year.”
He added that the federation would work with the host school to ensure that the transition would not be a financial burden for it.
