TORONTO — Local Jewish educators are expressing concern over a restructuring plan for the Centre for Enhancement of Jewish Education (the Mercaz) that was announced last week, and questions have been raised about details that have yet to be made public.

Co-founder of Jewish teacher education program Martin Lockshin  “very concerned” by changes

The plan will eliminate 10 full-time jobs and leave the Mercaz with only four full-time staff in a move that UJA Federation of Greater Toronto says is intended to provide more direct funding to its beneficiary schools.

Last Wednesday, in an e-mail to 20,000 people in its data bank – and in a conference call to lay and professional heads of Jewish schools that took place 90 minutes before the e-mail was sent – federation announced that it would be “streamlining” the Mercaz, the successor to the old Board of Jewish Education, while at the same time increasing financial support for Jewish education.

Although school leaders were not consulted about the decision per se, federation spokesperson Howard English told The CJN that “we’re in touch all the time with the education community and with senior educators. They [have] told us that the people who work at the Mercaz are fine, wonderful, dedicated, committed people, but there had to be a change in the way service delivery took place.”

As well, English said, “if the [conference] call [had] generated opinions that would have led us to scrap [the announcement], we would have listened.”

In the call, the changes to the Mercaz were presented as the federation’s “intention,” and questions and thoughts were requested, he said.

April 3 will be the last day on the job for 10 full-time and two contract employees at the Mercaz, English said. As well, 2-1/2 people (two full-time and one half-time employee) have been reassigned to other duties at the federation, he said.

Four employees will remain on the job, English said. “The likely scenario” is that two of them will be education specialists, he added.

Seymour Epstein, the federation’s senior vice-president for the Mercaz, “has been offered a senior position related to Jewish education, with UJA Federation,” English said.

Epstein declined to comment for this article, and English would not say which employees are being let go. He did not include Epstein among the 10 full-time employees who will be losing their jobs.

Lou Greenbaum, chair of the Mercaz, said he didn’t think it was “appropriate” for him to discuss the changes.

A news release said that employees who will no longer be part of the Mercaz “are being treated sensitively and generously.” English said the federation has hired a company to provide relocation counselling, and they will receive “some kind of separation package.”

The changes do not have to do with the recent economic downturn and will not save the federation money, English said. “The money being saved is going to direct support for Jewish education.”

A report by the federation’s task force on Jewish education led to the creation of the Mercaz two years ago. The entity had previously been called the Board of Jewish Education.

This year’s restructuring was deemed necessary by “lead professional and lay people at the federation, including lead lay people at the Mercaz,” English said. No educational professionals were involved in the decision, he added, but Epstein “was informed about our intentions a week to 10 days before the announcement was made.”

The decision was preceded by several months of ongoing discussions and was approved by the federation’s executive committee and board, English said.

Among concerns expressed by school leaders was the maintenance of financial assistance for supplementary schools, English said. He told The CJN that funding for supplementary schools and special needs education would be maintained and “hopefully” increased in the upcoming 2009-2010 fiscal year beginning July 1, depending on the amount of revenue raised in this year’s UJA campaign.

He said the federation is confident that it will reach or come very close to last year’s total of $66 million. As of last week, “close to $62 million” had been raised, English said.

For the 2008-2009 fiscal year, an extra $180,000 was budgeted for Jewish education, and the federation is “going to provide another $320,000” in the coming year, he said.

The money is already budgeted, and is “coming from donor revenue available to UJA Federation,” English added.

When asked to be more specific, he answered, “I can’t say it’s coming from one particular source. It’s a very complex process. Increases are achieved through cutting in many other ways… One of the ways is not rehiring when people leave voluntarily. We’ve done some internal cost cutting when it comes to seemingly small things like long distance calls and paper supplies and photocopies. We’ve instituted efficiencies. We’re looking at every area of our operation.”

According to last week’s news release, a substantial sum has been “set aside, in reserve, for Jewish education, depending on campaign revenue.”

“Substantial,” in this context, means “over $1 million,” English said. “It will be applied on a case-by-case basis for worthy programs and services that the schools in conjunction with us want to undertake.”

According to the news release, federation “will be embarking on a renewed partnership with community day schools by enhancing their capacity to provide direct education services, rather than receiving services supplied by the Mercaz.”

For example, English explained, “it is the schools in consultation with UJA Federation that will determine that they want to continue the Rikudiya [annual dance festival] and Zimriya [annual song festival], and together we will determine how that will be provided. One school could take the lead in providing a program or service to the community, or it could be outsourced, for example, to the faculty of Jewish studies at York [University] or the University of Toronto. The principle is the schools themselves, in partnership with us, will be supplying direct educational services to the community that were supplied for them by Mercaz.”

Commenting in the news release on the change, UJA Federation president David Koschitzky said the new approach “demonstrates confidence in Toronto’s excellent day schools.

“Our modern, dynamic educators have reached the point where they do not need us to deliver services. Instead, capacity-building is one of their most significant requirements.”

The “new Mercaz” will likely focus on “administration of tuition subsidies, educational consultation at the schools, and liaison with the schools in a capacity-building forum,” English said

The model is similar to the one the federation uses for its social service agencies, he added.

He said the changes at the Mercaz constitute “a bold, progressive move that will significantly benefit the community by redirecting money from overhead cost to direct financial support. It will be directed to the education system and not to a department that is overseeing an education system.

“Our commitment to Jewish education is genuine and it’s deep, and it’s ongoing.”

Shana Harris, head of school at Bialik Hebrew Day School, said she was “concerned, because it’s not clear to me what the new model will be and what the impact will be” on day and supplementary schools.

Many of the services that the Mercaz has co-ordinated and provided in the past are “critical,” she said, citing as one example its Board of Licence that certified Jewish studies teachers.

As well, Harris said, the Midrasha L’Morim ran courses for all teachers in pedagogy and programming, and the Mercaz worked with York University to provide special education qualifications, which was especially significant for Jewish studies teachers.

English told The CJN there will continue to be a Board of Licence and there will be a Midrasha.

Taking on new responsibilities will “certainly… require extra staff or time” for the schools, Harris said. “Schools are [already] stretched in providing professional development and finding time to do all the programs we want to do internally.”

Martin Lockshin, a York University professor and a co-founder of its Jewish teacher education program with Michael Brown and Syd Eisen, also said he was “very concerned.

“I think that something real was accomplished by having a strong central authority for Jewish education here in town.” He disagreed with Koschitzky’s assessment that educators no longer need service delivery from the Mercaz.

Lockshin said he thinks that “more than skeleton operations are necessary.” He noted the importance of the Mercaz annual professional development day, its pedagogic library and film library that’s used by teachers throughout the Jewish school system, and its mentoring services for teachers.

While mentoring can take place at individual schools, he said, he noted that new teachers may be reluctant to let their own principal know that they don’t know how to do something.

The Mercaz has been “a safe place to go,” Lockshin said. “I’m worried that’s going to be lost.”

In some ways, the Mercaz has been “even more crucial” for supplementary school teachers, he added.

Mark Smiley, director of education at Associated Hebrew Schools, said he believes that all the Jewish schools are “nervous that this will negatively impact on our ability to do high-level professional development without incurring significant additional cost to our professional development budget lines.”

Associated was involved in two high-level professional development projects with the Mercaz that Smiley said he hoped would continue. One, held in conjunction with United Synagogue Day School and Bialik, related to making the school more child-centred, and the other involved Judaic studies teachers at Associated’s middle school, he said.

“I think that outgoing leadership of the Mercaz were successful in –almost across the board –trying to raise standards and make the schools focus more on quality, delivering child-centredness and professionalism,” Smiley said.

“I am hopeful that the reorganization of the Mercaz will leave in place a strategic forum for the planning for Jewish education, and while I believe there is an improvement in school-based leadership and excellence, most principals will agree that having outside support is essential for maintaining quality in the system.”

Syd Eisen – a York University professor emeritus who founded the school’s Centre for Jewish Studies and its Jewish teacher education program, and who is also a life member of the boards of both TanenbaumCHAT and Associated – said that, based on the minimal information he had, he was “delighted” to hear about an increase in tuition subsidies and hoped there would be enough funding to include some of the smaller schools.

However, he added that he was “concerned about what looks like the disintegration of the central body of professionals and handing off responsibilities to the schools.

“The schools have their job, which is to educate students. The central body’s job is [to take an] overall view of quality, bringing in new things, running system-wide programs…. You need a body of professionals to do those things.”

Frank Samuels, general studies principal at Yeshivat Or Chaim and Ulpanat Orot and chair of the Association of Principals of Jewish Day Schools of Toronto, said that the Mercaz’s services were geared more to elementary schools than high schools like his own.

He said he is “very excited about the possibility of working with Mercaz as a service provider as we create our own professional development,” but he added that he doesn’t have “nearly enough time, given the demands of my own school.

“I know how difficult it is to embrace change, but I think that we’re all going to be stronger as a result of this,” Samuels said. “I say that with a really sad heart for the people who are no longer working.”