As the primary funder for Prizmah’s Mental Health Summit this coming May, the Ruderman Family Foundation has a long history of supporting Jewish day schools.  Working with Prizmah in the area of mental health for day schools has brought the foundation “full circle,” according to Sharon Shapiro, a trustee of the Foundation.

“When my grandmother died, my father set up a scholarship fund at Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) for Orthodox Jewish day schools,” said Shapiro. It was this initial philanthropic move rooted in the values of giving back and supporting the Jewish community that led the family to create what became the Ruderman Family Foundation. “Our work started in Jewish day schools, and as we have broadened our focus in various ways, it feels very good to connect some of our recent priorities and passions, such as mental health, directly back to day schools where we began,” said Shapiro.

In 2004, the Ruderman Family Foundation was one of the founders of Greater Boston’s Peerless Excellence initiative which committed $45 million into the day schools. “It was through the Peerless Excellence work that we really deepened our partnership with CJP and created a strategy for excellence and inclusion within the Jewish day schools,” said Shapiro.  

This led to the creation of Gateways: Access to Jewish Education in 2006, seeking to make inclusion in Jewish education a top priority for the Boston Jewish community. “Our strategy was based on a life cycle experience, a long-term commitment in order to create long-term impact across schools, synagogues, camps, and preschools,” said Shapiro.

“Our first conversations about mental health in the Jewish community emerged from our work with CJP and the Ruderman Synagogue Inclusion Project initiative,” said Shapiro. “In addition, we saw through our work with Gateways that so many students in Jewish day schools struggle with mental illness. There was a need to implement systematic solutions.”

Shapiro’s passion for mental health emerged as she realized how difficult it was for those in need to access mental health support and resources in Jewish education. “At the time, people did not fully realize that mental health issues could happen to anyone,” Shapiro said.  “In the Jewish community, people really were not sharing, and families felt isolated because of the stigma around mental health and the low levels of awareness.”

When the Ruderman Family Foundation started working in mental health over six years ago, it was hard to find opportunities within the Jewish community, and they stepped outside the Jewish world for the first time in order to learn and expand their knowledge.  “We always kept the Jewish schools and organizations as part of our commitment and expansion plan,” said Shapiro.  

The Foundation developed a strategic partnership with the Brookline Center for Community Mental Health and funded BRYT (Bridge to Resilient Youth and Transition), which supports high school students taking leaves of absence to address mental health issues.  BRYT has grown dramatically to now serve 250 schools, and it has become a central source of programming for the Massachusetts education system and has even expanded to eight additional states. This partnership represents one of key approaches to addressing mental health needs across high schools.

The Ruderman Family Foundation believes in partnerships through meaningful investments-no one can do it alone. “Working together allows us to develop relationships with the organizations and the people leading them so by the time the partnership is ready for implementation, the work is better stream-lined and the partnership is more successful.”

“We have been very fortunate to have great partners,” said Shapiro. “It is important to us to develop initiatives and pilots that can be scaled, replicated, and enhanced across communities.”

As the foundation’s work in mental health deepened, Shapiro discovered connections back to the Jewish community. “With Covid-19 and the accompanying rapid expansion in mental health needs, we partnered with Gateways to help them create a system for Jewish day schools that follows the BRYT model.”  There are now pilots in three Boston-area schools based on BRYT.

“Working now with Prizmah to support social and emotional mental health in our schools is a great opportunity to elevate the importance of mental health within these institutions,” said Shapiro. “It is so hard for teachers and principals to address this complex reality; there is so much need and not enough time.  We decided to partner with Prizmah in order to address the teachers, school principals, and other professionals so that they can help themselves and their students.”

“Prizmah’s track record in changing realities for Jewish day schools and the incredible dedication of their team give us a great sense of partnership and shared investment in the outcome,” said Shapiro.

Shapiro offered an observation on what it means for a funder to approach a topic that they care so much about. “Figuring out what your passion is takes time, it is a long road of learning,” she said.  

“For me, it is wonderful to find myself involved in a topic that is so important to me and my family and to keep investing in the Jewish community, exactly where we started.”

Here is the dream:

You are an administrator planning professional development for your faculty. Sometimes you have a specific day and/or specific groups of people you are planning for. The goal, the dream, is that your faculty grow, learn, engage and become inspired, more engaged and more innovative and confident and brave and open. At the end of the program, they will tell you, “Wow, that was so worth my time!” 

It is the same dream you have for your students in every class, that they learn, they achieve that joyous lightbulb moment of understanding and connection. And yet, this goal is so challenging to achieve.

At Prizmah we have had the joy of creating all sorts of professional development experiences, some with partner organizations and some on our own, working with each school to tailor the program for their specific needs and contexts. After having been a part of creating more than ten programs in the past four years, I developed a checklist of ten items in planning any kind of PD opportunity.

The Framing Matters

The topic for the PD experience matters. If faculty are told that PD opportunities are always coming to correct or fix, then they get the message that every PD experience is a veiled criticism. The message of growth is more effective; growth is seen as an exciting and desirable opportunity and not a signal that we are doing something wrong or not working hard enough.

At the same time, we might benefit from reconsidering the “theme of the year” approach. Sometimes, faculty see these themes as temporary fads, so they keep their heads down and get by with the least amount of effort possible. If there is no clear and urgent benefit for the classroom, and there is no implementation, then please do not choose the theme.

So the framing should be something relevant, helpful, applicable and one that, even if it is challenging, the faculty can understand why it is worth investing time and effort into learning this new topic/skill set.

The Setting and Setup Matters 

Just as we know from excellent teaching, the way the room you are in sets the mood, creating the atmosphere for learning and exploration. Atmospheric elements, from the seating and tables to the lighting and even wifi access, impact the learning that can be accomplished in a moment, and certainly set a tone when faculty enter a room. (This is true as well even for virtual meetings and experiences.) 

So just as we know that form=content, consider the room set up with purpose and intention. Where are the food and drinks? Garbage cans? Seating, tables and open spaces? Is the seating done with intention, so the folks who are excited about this and will engage are grouped together or mixed in with the folks who will probably be cynical? What do you think will set this up for the most success? Can everyone see the screen/s and have access to enter and exit the room without drama and attention? 

Setting up the physical space impacts the experience not only in the opportunities for learning, but in making faculty feel taken care of and seen. I often have gifts and giveaways for faculty to elicit joy and delight; endorphins are key as we start any learning experience. If we can proactively plan for them, then we start a few steps ahead.

Offer Many Access Points 

We are not all the same; what one teacher finds "easy" is the most challenging ask for another. We learn and see the world differently. One PD theme for the year, though it takes less time and effort to plan, sometimes forces everyone to learn in the same way - not what we want our teachers doing in their own classes. So if we do offer PD for the whole faculty at the same time, we must model differentiation just as we want them to offer the students. Provide multiple access points, activities and ways for the PD to look successful. Which leads to... 

Choice Is Powerful 

We adults especially like to have choices, not a million, but certainly a few. We know that choosing to engage and feeling agency helps learning. So creating options and multiple ways to engage in PD is key. Where can we offer real choices? Where is a choice not such a good idea?

Cut Down on Cognitive steps of application

As much as we can, we must create, design and offer PD that is accessible to each teacher, with math, science, Bible, Talmud, art, PE applications. The more we create opportunities to implement the PD for a specific subject, with the language used in each context, the more likely it will be applied.

Additionally, for our faculty who have any kind of disability, from hearing and sight to English as a second language, we must proactively design PD that is truly accessible to them. And while I am on the topic, please just use the microphone. They should not have to ask, they need it.

Get Clear On The Why And What Success Looks Like 

When your faculty teach the next day after a PD, what do you wish for them to tell their students about what they learned the day before? If this PD "works," what will it look and feel like? How will you (the admin) be measuring success? How can the faculty measure success?

Model it- or don't do it 

The head of school asked me why the theme of the year isn’t so popular. The theme was technology, and she was not sure why the teachers were not excited about it. So I asked her one question: When was the last time you used technology in a faculty meeting? She answered: Never.

If the administration believes a PD is worthy, we must model it in faculty meetings so there is buy-in, and we are actively learning with our faculty.

The Topic is Not Necessarily The Reason We Are Doing This

The goal for a PD, and the topic or entry point, may not actually be the same thing. In other words, sometimes the best way to accomplish a goal is to enter through the window. For example, one school may want to work on staff morale and how to build one another up. However, addressing that problem directly may be less effective than working on writing report card comments to students and using one another as practice for positive and authentic feedback. Both are worthy and helpful, but there are many ways to achieve goals. Be creative.

Provide Immediate Takeaways 

Be mindful of creating some immediate takeaways that staff can “steal” for their own classrooms, from activities you model to games and approaches to use. Be transparent about the modeling and ways in which you are sharing information, access and learning experiences. Often, I will break the fourth wall and narrate my thoughts about why I am approaching something in a specific way in a specific context.

Be Flexible When The Needs Shift 

This is, of course, the rule for all things involving real people: We plan, God laughs, and we adjust. So reading the room, knowing the context and being flexible are essential. When designing PD we must be aware of the context of the session. What happened before this, and what is happening next? What is going on in the school right now, and what big topics are on peoples' minds? 

When it comes to providing transformative and excellent professional development experiences, the same rules apply to all good teaching: make it fun, engaging , powerful, accessible and yet challenging; help me push myself to grow and apply new ideas and skills, so that the person I emerge as after the learning has more skills and abilities and knowledge than the person I entered as. 

This summer will mark nine years since The Idea Institute (formerly the I.D.E.A. Schools Network) first started running the Summer Sandbox, a professional development conference for teachers interested in learning how to implement project-based learning (PBL) and other educational innovations. One question I often get from potential registrants is whether returning to a Sandbox is a worthwhile experience; that is, are the Sandboxes all the same?

One answer is that though a participant can always take what we call PBL 101 and 201 workshops, we deliberately add additional components to the Sandbox to keep it fresh and innovative. For example, at two Sandboxes we had Design Thinking sprints, where attendees had to redesign some aspect of Jewish learning in a day- or supplementary-school setting. (Looking at you, tefillah!) At one Sandbox we did a deep dive into Game-Based Learning; at another, we worked with JETS Israel, exploring how to weave digital and other innovative learning strategies with PBL. In short, we want educators to discover myriad ways to expand classroom learning in original and enriching directions.

PBL for All Teachers 

Because PBL has so many different facets and exciting components to explore, another innovation we make each year is with the PBL 101 and 201 workshops themselves. We’re mindful that not all educators can or want to do full-scale PBL in their classrooms, so we’re always thinking about the elements of the pedagogy that everyone might want to use. Three that have been popular with schools recently are creative assessments, authentic learning and student voice and choice. 

During Covid in particular, educators discovered a need for creative assessments; test taking was hard on Zoom, where it was easy to cheat. Having developed a cadre of digital projects we used during the pandemic, we’re now sharing those as well as ones we did in real life, in order to show teachers that even post-Zoom, we can enrich our classrooms with more creative work. Similarly, we’re seeing that teachers are interested in authentic learning, connecting with the world in tangible, authentic ways. It could be that now that we’re out of lockdown, we’re looking for opportunities to forge ties with others, particularly in our Jewish studies classrooms where we want our students connected to their learning not just intellectually but emotionally as well.

Student voice and choice is always an appealing entry point into PBL. I can’t remember when we haven’t offered a workshop on that aspect of it. Thinking about ways to appeal to the different interests, passions and learning modalities of the many students in one’s classes is the starting point of fostering a more student-centered classroom. 

I don’t know yet know what we’ll drill into in this year’s Summer Sandbox - planned for late June - but I know it will grow from the conversations and concerns we’ve been hearing educators have and express over the past year. Just as student voice and choice is key to developing a classroom with student agency, listening to what teachers want is key to building the professional development (PD) they want to engage in.

Making Change That Lasts

One of the areas that remains a challenge for educators is sustaining a commitment to change. We know that immersing in PBL, or even parts of it, is hard and requires significant resources of time and effort by an administration and teaching staff. On top of everything else, Covid has placed untold demands on everyone in education, and just surviving these times has required every bit of energy we have. Contemplating embarking on culturewide school or even classroom change seems quixotic.

Even before Covid, we know that many of us attend PD, grow exuberant about a new theory or practice, vow to completely transform our classes, and then find ourselves in the daily grind of school where the most stirred we become is from having a working whiteboard marker or classroom printer. How do we build cultures of learning in our school so that we can see real change over the course of one, two, three or even ten years? As administrators and educators, how do we raise our heads high enough above a SmartBoard to see trends we want to be part of and reforms we want to accelerate? 

That too is what we try to address at the Sandbox. We’ve encountered the teachers and schools that are resistant to change and acknowledge the undertow of the refrain, “This is the way we’ve always done it, so why do we need to do x differently?” We also see the very real struggle of those who want to change but don’t know how or get bogged down in the countless details of running a school or classroom. We don’t have a magic bullet, but in the ice breakers and creativity workshops we build into the Sandbox, we try to foster a growth mindset, give permission for educators to make mistakes and fail forward, and help them build the courage they need to push through discomfort with themselves, colleagues, students and parents as they try something new.

PD as Renewal 

After nine years of planning the Sandbox, I still get excited about doing so. It reminds me of my days in the classroom. I started as an English teacher, but didn’t get bored of teaching the same books each year. I would always look for something new to make a work of literature more relevant, fresh and appealing. Last year, and again for the upcoming Sandbox, I’m working with Rachel Dratch at Prizmah and Judith Talesnick and Jonathan Fass at The Jewish Education Project. They’ve put their stamp on the conference and helped me think about it in new ways. 

I suppose that’s what we want out of any worthwhile PD experience: a chance to see ourselves as educators and our classrooms and schools in a new way, to take a step out of the mundane and to renew ourselves, so that our learning spaces are ones where our students can do the same.

A page of Gemara can be daunting for any student to navigate. It is set up with the discussion text in the middle, without punctuation and in Aramaic, and with rabbinic commentaries situated around the text running to the margin.

In a typical yeshiva day school, by seventh grade, students are expected to know their way around a page of Gemara. Yet Benjamin (not his real name) usually sat in class with his hood over his head, appearing inattentive. His teacher concluded that he had attention issues and asked for help from his Hidden Sparks coach. However, when they observed Benjamin together, an unexpected picture emerged. 

As the team unpacked Benjamin’s struggles, they also observed his very strong higher order thinking skills. The way in which the daf (page) of Gemara was being taught was predominantly frontal, with the expectation that students would follow along with the teacher. The team noted that Benjamin was able to follow along and actively participate in verbal discussions, but when he had to engage with the text, he seemingly shut down. They wondered if the layout of the page was overwhelming for him. For example, a student with spatial challenges may find an original page of Gemara very challenging and exhausting. 

At the heart of Hidden Sparks’ work is the belief that every child has unique talents, strengths, affinities and challenges. Teacher and student awareness of individual learning and behavior, strengths and challenges, empowers schools to create solutions that meet the needs of the wide variety of learners with whom they work, building on students’ strengths and making modifications to meet their challenges.

Opening a Window to Let Students Thrive 

Benjamin’s coach-teacher team set out to limit the obstacles he faced by differentiating the way that the content was presented to him. They created a “reading window” that would help. Benjamin immediately was able to focus on the text under discussion, while shading out the parts of the page and commentaries that he didn’t need to focus on. For younger students, this may be a window cut out in a piece of cardboard, while an older student may highlight areas in the text. Removing or lessening the obstacles often immediately helps to lower a student’s frustration and anxiety. Observing Benjamin’s strengths and challenges and adding this accommodation helped the teacher begin the path towards differentiation. 

Then the team set out to work on tapping into Benjamin’s superior higher-order thinking skills. How could the teacher communicate the discussions on the daf in a way that would spark Ben’s engagement? The teacher was willing to try new approaches. And so began the journey that would transform Benjamin’s participation and positively impact the rest of the class. 

When the teacher moved from center stage and began to use Benjamin’s cognitive strengths, initiating new teaching approaches, he expanded the differentiation in his class. By considering the student’s interests and learning profile, he was able to shift the process, the how of learning the content. The teacher introduced debates, asked students to think about how they would advertise or report a concept on an Instagram page, and engaged the whole group in discussions, with students taking on different roles. Benjamin emerged as one of the most engaged students in the class, and all of the students benefited from the shift in the teacher’s instructional approach.

Getting Started 

Beginning on a differentiation path doesn’t require a whole class overhaul. When teachers understand who their students are as learners, small steps and simple changes in how content is presented or how a student is asked to demonstrate their learning can make a big difference. 

Strategies such as providing students with choice, presenting reading material with different levels of complexity, scaffolding or breaking down large projects into smaller chunks can all go a long way in helping those students whom the teacher knows are struggling, and most likely, the class as a whole. For teachers who are thinking about how to differentiate instruction, even just beginning by considering where students are developmentally, and accommodating to their strengths and weaknesses, leads to a shift in how they plan their teaching. While some teachers may experience that this approach can take more time in the short term, over time they can see the benefits for themselves and their students.

Consider alternatives to a paper and pen test for assessing student’s learning. Encouraging students to show us what they have learned in different ways (debates, role play or diorama) is another aspect of differentiation. When students are given the opportunity to show that they have learned the content in a way that uses their interests and strengths, it is differentiating the product that the students complete.

Elevating the Field 

We know that differentiation is an area that needs further attention. According to the recent large-scale CASJE report (“Mapping the Market: An Analysis of the Preparation, Support, and Employment of Jewish Educators”), Jewish day schools are facing a personnel shortage and retention problem: only 26% of their Judaic studies teachers were required to have mastery of instructional methods/strategies upon hiring, and 49% of them leave their positions within the first five years. Whereas many of the challenges facing Jewish day schools are complex and difficult to solve, boosting teachers’ preparedness and skill set with instructional methodologies that meet the needs of diverse learners is an achievable intervention that can provide immediate, practical and transformative assistance for children who struggle and can help shift teacher mindset and practice to help the rest of their students.

A leader in this field, Carol Ann Tomlinson, notes, “Teaching is difficult. Teaching really well is profoundly difficult…. Differentiation suggests it is feasible to develop classrooms where the reality of learner variance can be addressed along with curricular realities…. The idea is compelling. It challenges us to draw on our best knowledge of teaching and learning. It suggests that there is room for both equity and excellence in our classrooms.”

This is one of the reasons why Hidden Sparks is partnering with Prizmah on a six-part series for heads of Judaic studies departments, Leading Your Judaic Studies Team In Differentiated Instruction, to bolster their abilities to guide their teachers in increasing the levels of differentiation in their classrooms. By working both on a systems level with school leaders and directly with classroom teachers, we can help enhance and strengthen our capacity for nurturing within all of our students a love of learning and a sense of optimism about their future.

Written by Avi Posen and Team

In a world where there is so much that divides us, it’s often easy to forget how much our tradition believes in the power of unity. If there is one lesson we’ve learned over the last few years of the Covid pandemic, it is that distancing, socially or physically, can prevent us from realizing our full potential to develop professionally.

So one question that we kept asking ourselves at Unpacked for Educators was, How can educators best advance their professional development across geographic and pandemic-driven divides?

We have been thrilled to partner with Prizmah this school year on the Unpacked for Educators Collaborative, which was formed to bring Jewish educators together in a united community in order to build bridges in the global Israel education community. Our intention has been to unite educators in a mission of enhancing and strengthening the Israel education toolkit and to make it relevant and timely across geographic, cultural and ideological divides.

Our partnership has brought educators from Jewish middle schools, high schools and congregational schools together to work year-round on professional development, networking and support. This includes monthly webinars, access to curated educational materials, and facilitated collaboration. The Collaborative aims to support schools in advancing their institution’s educational goals in the field of Israel education.

Navigating the Complexity Together

In the current political climate, Israel educators as well as their students face myriad challenges. Navigating their way through the soundbites and anti-Israel rhetoric on social media is only one of the many issues facing Jewish communities around the world. In many cases, schools may not have easy access to professional materials in a language that young people can relate to or that is in sync with the political or religious ideology of the student body. They often need either to curate their own curricula and material or to reach out for extra support from their friends or colleagues in other schools or communities to share ideas and resources.

The Collaborative has been able to do all of that for them, in one easy place with a built-in model for sustainable continuity. It builds on the Prizmah Network’s success in strengthening schools and communities through peer-to-peer learning, professional development and community-building, with an added layer of nuanced, curated content from Unpacked for Educators. The content lives on the relevant digital platforms, with messaging that is suitable for the fast-paced information highway, where trust is gained or lost in a click.

The Collaborative program includes ten professional development webinars with leaders in the field of Israel engagement such as Yossi Klein Halevi, Yair Rosenberg, Dr. Ruth Wisse, former MK Tehillah Friedman, Gil Troy and Dr. Sivan Zakai, among others. Along with hearing from these experts in our monthly sessions, the educators gather in breakout rooms to develop practical takeaways for the classroom.

Mariel Seta, an educator at Kadima Day School in Los Angeles, summed up the experience best when she shared how much the program has helped open a new window to new knowledge and an opportunity to communicate and collaborate with other teachers.

“The Collaborative has given me the chance to hear speakers I admire that otherwise would have been almost impossible to reach in an intimate setting, where I can ask questions and actively engage with experts in different fields. It’s also inspired and challenged me to develop new ideas about how to approach content, all while sharing and learning with and from other educators. And the Collaborative has connected me with teachers who share like-minded goals that challenge students to find their voice and explore their Jewish identity while encouraging them to learn actively. Through the Collaborative, I’ve found inspiration and guidance, a growth mindset, and an endless opportunity to grow and help my students grow as Jews and citizens of the world.”

Each school has access to all of the Unpacked for Educators premium educational content such as curricular outlines, experiential learning activities, full-length feature films, coaching sessions with our educational staff, and a student ambassador program focused on content creation and social media influence.

Innovative Global Reach in the Virtual Sphere

The Unpacked for Educators Collaborative is so unique because of its ability to bring educators together from across the globe in a vibrant, dynamic community to share ideas, questions and knowledge.

Even virtually, it’s been inspiring to watch the lively and diverse discussions taking place in our breakout rooms. Any given breakout room can be filled with educators from all over, from New York to London and Melbourne to Cape Town, communicating across continents and time zones to work through shared challenges together. As Rachel Levitt Klein Dratch, Prizmah’s director of Educational Innovation, put it: “The energy in the virtual room is electric - amazing educators from all over the world engaging in serious discussion, being open and curious, connecting and learning together... It is humbling to witness!”

As we enter our third pandemic spring, we are indeed humbled by how the Collaborative is contributing to professional development among educators. We are also inspired to see it continue to grow, answering the needs of 70 middle schools, high schools, congregational schools and youth organizations in 11 countries spanning the entire religious and political spectrum of the Jewish world.

The Collaborative creates a shared language when teaching about Israel. It harnesses the power of collaboration and unity to enrich Israel education. In the words of Noam Weissman, Executive Vice President of Unpacked:

“The opportunity to shrink the Jewish world, to connect all Jewish educators and educational institutions with rich content, curriculum and clarity of how to cultivate Jewish identity has been the goal from the beginning. Since we partnered up with Prizmah, it’s been amazing to see what we can accomplish together.”

One of the great strengths of Jewish day schools is their independence. Each day school has the autonomy to shape the educational experience of the students in their care to their unique needs, as well as to the priorities of the community in which these young people live and learn. Unlike public schools, which are bound to structure teaching and learning around fixed expectations, the professional educators in day schools have considerable freedom to conceive and execute a one-of-a-kind educational program. At the highest level, each day school can actualize the true purpose of schooling: meeting students where they are while enabling them to achieve excellence. There has been no greater demonstration of the power of this flexibility and ability to innovate than during the pandemic when, for the most part, day schools shifted quickly to online and hybrid models of instruction while public schools floundered.

Of course, this same asset of “self-rule” also brings with it some sharp drawbacks, for independence necessarily means a lack of centralization and the opportunity to benefit from being part of a broader accountability structure. A critical challenge facing day schools, then, is how to take advantage of their independence without losing sight of the value of adhering to external and well-tested standards.

What is true of day schools also holds for the independent organizations that provide professional development to the corps of educators who work in them. As with the day school field, these providers’ self-developed educational models—in this case, education for adults - are a distinct strength, for they capitalize on their flexibility to respond to the individual needs of teachers and the specific context in which they teach. Here, too, the pandemic revealed how this autonomy plays out, as providers adapted their models to accommodate the ever-changing needs of the educators with whom they work, especially by remaining sensitive to the additional burdens placed on teachers.

And like the day schools they partner with, these experts are typically not accountable to any overarching governing body but are operating in service only of the mutual goals of strengthening instructional practices and making curriculum more robust.

Within this context, 17 professional development providers came together in December 2019 to form the DEEP Consortium. The DEEP Consortium stands for the “Developing Embedded Expertise Programs” and operates as a professional learning community through which members share best practices, resources and ideas on how to implement effective interventions. Its aim is to encourage both member organizations and the day school field as a whole to pursue and realize professional development opportunities that optimize impact.

Standards for Professional Development 

While the DEEP Consortium is hardly a central agency, it has, over the past months, come to understand its role in upholding certain standards of what constitutes high-quality professional development. These research-based practices include eight key characteristics:

• present instructional content 
• involve active learning, including designing, experimenting, practicing and revising 
• are collaborative (within a school's faculty and/or with teachers across schools)
• are rooted in proven models 
• entail direct coaching 
• build in deliberate reflection and actionable feedback
• take place over an extended duration
• focus on student outcomes

They uphold these broad principles while conveying instructional strategies that have immediate application in classrooms.

It is critical to note that launching the DEEP Consortium did not suddenly prompt each member to commit to intervention models and approaches to training and coaching that adhere to these principles. On the contrary, it was their long-standing implementation of high-quality professional development along these standards that led each DEEP member to join the Consortium in the first place.

Maintaining a Commitment to Excellence 

In publicly and forthrightly asserting members’ shared commitment to these methods of supporting teachers in strengthening their practice, the DEEP Consortium hopes to communicate to day school educators two essential truths about education and the field of day schools. First, through this joint statement, we emphasize that professional development should not be taken lightly. If school leaders are serious about boosting the capacity of their staff to educate all students, they will need to invest in the kind of training and coaching that is job-embedded, content-rich, collaborative and focuses on student outcomes. DEEP members know that when teachers participate consistently in these kinds of more intensive professional development opportunities, they are much more likely to improve upon their instructional practice and, in turn, augment student learning.

While we might be tempted to state that the need for quality professional development exists even during the upheaval caused by the pandemic, the truth is that it is especially during this time that school leaders need to support teachers to engage in meaningful activity that promotes skill development and confidence-building. In an environment where it seems like everyone is running just to stand still, professional development can be a lifeline to let educators know that progress is possible.

The second rationale for why the DEEP Consortium asserts these eight practices as our North Star is to convey just how it is possible to maintain independence in how we deliver professional development and still hold fast to broader principles that help to ensure our interventions are of the highest quality. And if the experts who serve day schools can strike this balance between autonomy and common standards, between flexibility and structure, surely day schools themselves can as well.

Looking ahead, the DEEP Consortium will explore ways of evolving this collective commitment to implementing first-rate professional development into definitive initiatives that can support day schools in their own pursuit of educational excellence - a pursuit that takes unique approaches to achieving shared high expectations. We invite day school leaders and educators to engage in conversation with both individual members of DEEP and with the Consortium leadership in this effort, as we together strive toward our lofty ambition of making day schools the best that they can be.

Ten years ago, Yeshiva University School Partnership launched YU Lead, a leadership development program for Jewish day school educational leaders. The program was a response to two connected needs that the YUSP experienced in the field: the necessity for school leaders to demonstrate adaptive leadership skills to meet the ever-changing needs of 21st century Orthodox day schools, and the absence of formal pathways to leadership for emerging and existing leaders. YU Lead aimed to increase the capacity of leaders to successfully lead in Jewish day schools, strengthen the pipeline and retention of qualified leaders, and build connections among professionals in the field. The program was designed to inspire a transformation in the professional path to Jewish educational leadership, from incidental and haphazard to deliberate and meaningful. 

YU Lead launched in 2012 as the first educational leadership program of its kind in the field. With the input of day school leaders, program leadership incorporated best practices of learning and teaching into the pedagogy, structure and curriculum. The first cohort learned through online asynchronous and synchronous classes, alongside in-person experiences. In order to meet the needs of leaders at different career stages, participants were divided into cohorts with professionals who shared similar positions. The nine-month curriculum comprised a survey course of leadership in day schools, and thought leaders from the field taught units on topics ranging from time management to hiring to Israel advocacy. The program offered participants professional networking opportunities, relevant learning experiences and valuable leadership training.

From YU Lead to YOU Lead

Thanks to the vision and wisdom of its founders, the program today shares much in common with the first iteration of YU Lead, and it continues to evolve and thrive. When Prizmah formed in 2016, the program transitioned from YU Lead to YOU Lead. While the structure of the program has remained largely the same, key elements - particularly in the areas of curriculum, cohort and coaching - have shifted in alignment both with the needs of Jewish day schools, and with research in the broader leadership field. As YOU Lead develops, a commitment to reflective practice on the part of the participants and program administrators remains at its core. This dedication to constant reflection and adaptive practice amid complexity contributes to the continued success of the program in supporting the professional growth of flexible, ethical and resilient Jewish day school leaders.

Curriculum 

In the last decade, the curriculum of YOU Lead has shifted in order to prepare participants for the immense and varied challenges of educational leadership. The Learning Leadership Landscape Study, which Rosov Consulting completed in 2017 on behalf of Prizmah with the support of The AVI CHAI Foundation, revealed compelling data about day school leadership development. The study found that capacities - what leaders can do - are important, but insufficient for exceptional communal leadership, while dispositions - how a leader approaches the world - are essential. The study outlined four leadership dispositions - intellectual, emotional, ethical and practical - and asserted that leadership development programs can support participants in cultivating these dispositions through explicit commitments. This research inspired adjustments to the YOU Lead curriculum and content. The program refined its goals by committing to helping aspiring and existing leaders develop the necessary capacities and dispositions for Jewish day school leadership. The curriculum shifted away from a survey course towards a more focused and explicit approach to nurturing leadership dispositions, through modules such as Adaptive Leadership, Giving Effective Feedback, and Difficult Conversations.

As David suggests, the curriculum supports participants in building relevant knowledge that will expand their skill set and deepen their understanding of key dispositions required for leadership in complex school environments.

Cohort

In addition to the curriculum, the cohort experience plays a critical role in nurturing participants’ growth as resilient educational leaders. The original cohort model of the program has endured, and YOU Lead now offers three cohorts for participants: one for teacher leaders, for mid-level managers, and for senior administrators. Each cohort is paired with two mentors who build a tight-knit community among their groups by convening monthly dilemmas of practice conversations.

The cohort experience provides participants with a structured environment to practice important dispositions such as empathy and self-awareness, process how the dispositions manifest in actual leadership dilemmas and discuss complex challenges in real-time with trusted colleagues.

Coaching

The program’s evolving approach to coaching reflects its commitment to supporting the development of reflective, adaptive and engaged Jewish day school leaders. As the program evolved, it recognized the importance of providing participants with individualized coaching with experts in the field. 
Coaching continues to be a critical and distinguishing feature of the YOU Lead experience. Through bimonthly sessions, participants cultivate reflection and self-awareness and take ownership of their growth.

Through Covid and Beyond

The pandemic underscored the dire need for flexible and reflective Jewish day school leaders. When in-person gatherings were eliminated in 2020, the YOU Lead team considered halting the program for a year. Instead, believing in the program’s critical importance for individuals and the field, they pivoted to a fully virtual model and focused on helping educational leaders develop the dispositions required to face the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic. 
The program recruited a full cohort and provided invaluable support and guidance to the group of leaders throughout an immensely challenging year.
The impact of YOU Lead on the Jewish day school field thus far has been profound, and the program is poised to continue its tremendous contributions in the next decade. Since 2012, more than 200 leaders have participated in the program. Over 95% of alumni have remained in the field, and more than 60 YOU Lead alumni have taken on an advanced professional role since participating in the program. Nearly 40% of women who are heads of Orthodox day schools are YOU Lead alumnae. 
In the 2022-2023 school year, program administrators will continue investing in alumni engagement and programming. In addition, Prizmah plans for a return to in-person gatherings for the YOU Lead cohort and a celebration of YOU Leaders past and present at the January 2023 Prizmah Conference in Denver.

Do you know an inspiring educational leader in the field? YOU Lead is now accepting nominations for the 2022-2023 cohort. We look forward to recruiting a full cohort of exceptional day school leaders.

YOU Lead is generously sponsored by the Azrieli Foundation.

Dedicated to the memory of Leo Bernstein, לב שמואל בן ראובן ורייזל ז“ל

I have spent a lot of time recently thinking about what it is to care for yourself and others, and what it is to be cared for. This week marked the Shloshim, the thirty-day period of mourning according to Jewish law, after my father passed away. 

At the levayah/funeral, a learned friend, who recently also lost a parent, reminded me that much of Jewish mourning stems from minhag/tradition, and does not bear the weight of Halakhah/law. In our family - as in many - there are diverse Jewish practices and levels of observance. With the benefit of this wise advice, I realized that I was making a conscious choice to immerse in so many Jewish mourning practices. I found myself more deeply and intently engaged than my pre-mourning self might have anticipated.

The mourning practices enable those who have suffered a loss to engage with the community gradually, moving from the initial shock into a period of structured community support, and gradually returning to regular routines of life. 

Because of this gradual transition through traditional mourning stages, I have been able to accept the care and love of others around me and my family. I have found that these defined structures actually helped me to accept their lovingkindness, as well as provided me the space to reflect intentionally on a deep loss.

In parashat Terumah, the Torah portion this week, we read in great detail about structures. The building of the Mishkan/Tabernacle is a monumental and crucial moment in Jewish history. 

The parashah opens with God telling Moshe how to go about gathering all the materials for the construction of the Mishkan and its accouterments.

דַּבֵּר אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְיִקְחוּ־לִי תְּרוּמָה מֵאֵת כׇּל־אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר יִדְּבֶנּוּ לִבּוֹ תִּקְחוּ אֶת־תְּרוּמָתִי׃
Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves him.
(Exodus 25:2)

Before God details the plans and blueprints for the Mishkan, we learn something else.

It starts from the heart.

There is no tax or obligation to give for the Mishkan. The entire project starts at the heart, with a kind of instinctual desire to participate. 

The same is true as you mourn. The structures are an extraordinarily important part of our lives. And yet, their impact is to help manifest what comes from your heart, and enable the heartfelt love and support of the community around you to come through. My own heart has been “so moved,” in the language of the parashah, to allow the support to make a true impact.

When it comes to the “care and tending” of Jewish educational leaders - those who are responsible for one of the Jewish community’s most treasured endeavors - there are indeed trusted approaches, guidelines and patterns to emulate, just as in the construction of the Mishkan. In this issue of Kaleidoscope, we are pleased to share some of these excellent ideas, practices and strategies.

As I think about how difficult it can be to support our educational leaders, I wonder how we elevate established structures, such as a head support committee, to provide the support educators most need, in these extraordinary times. The structures can best help if we can create an environment where school leaders, and those in the position to support them, are able to open their hearts, and put the structures to work for their mutual benefit.

Over the course of the past two years, the pressure felt by school leaders has been unrelenting, and sadly we do not forecast any shortcut through Covid, notwithstanding the game-changing efficacy of vaccines, masking and other mitigation strategies. 

In the midst of this, how do we enable our leaders to let themselves be better cared for? What structures can we put in place to make it easier to accept support?

The answer may also be found in the parashah.

וּרְאֵה וַעֲשֵׂה בְּתַבְנִיתָם אֲשֶׁר־אַתָּה מׇרְאֶה בָּהָר׃
Note well, and follow the patterns for them that are being shown you on the mountain. (Exodus 25:40)

Even with all the detailed instructions and specifications about what goes where, there was confusion. Ibn Ezra picks up on this idea when he comments: “The making of the menorah required wisdom.” In addition to following the detailed instructions, there was a divine inspiration conveyed “on the mountain,” meaning the miraculous, awesome events that transpired on Sinai.

For school leaders and those who support them, there are policies, guidelines and principles. But there is also a measure of the miraculous in our work, the idea that the most impactful efforts come from the heart. We have the power to infuse the delivery and reception of support with even more.

Support can appear transactional - as straightforward as a homemade kugel dropped off to feed a mourning family - but we know that when we open our hearts to the work of caring for leaders, and to the miracle of being supported, we create space for transformative impact on individuals, on schools and on our communities.

Over the course of the pandemic, we all have experienced losses, both big and small. We have grieved the loss of things like personal space and travel. Our current seniors were freshmen the last time they had an uninterrupted school year. We’ve missed major milestones like baby namings, graduations and weddings. And many feel the gaping hole left by loss of life. We are grieving, our students are grieving, and our communities are grieving. 

There’s power in acknowledging and naming grief and recognizing that a piece of the weight we carry right now is grief, for things big and small. As the pandemic stretches on and on (and on and on), how do we look toward the future, while also honoring the losses we have experienced and are still currently experiencing? What can we learn from Jewish tradition as we grieve individually? How can our community create intentional space to honor loss and also support restoration and healing?

Dual Process Coping 

At BaMidbar, where we’re working to build a Jewish community that actively supports its youth in cultivating mental health and wellness, we look at the intersection of Jewish tradition and mental health. When I think about this intersection in regards to grief and loss, I think about Tisha B’Av, the town of Yavneh where the Talmud was born, and the “Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement” (Stoebe and Schut, 1999). 

In opposition to linear perspectives of grief (such as the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance), the dual process model proposes that there are two fundamental categories of coping mechanisms associated with grief, which we oscillate between. There’s loss-oriented coping, where we’re facing the loss itself. This might be sharing stories, looking at pictures from the past, and reflecting on what we’ve lost. It can also be avoidance, disbelief and numbness. It’s the moments when we feel that emptiness, the gaping hole that is the lack of something in our lives. 

On the other side, there’s restoration-oriented coping, where we’re integrating our loss into our new perception of the future, rebuilding, step by step, asking what it means for us now, and moving into the new reality. The dual process model says that both types of coping are necessary and that it’s adaptive and healthy to oscillate back and forth between the two now and into the future.

A Jewish Paradigm

Jewish tradition provides a perfect example of this oscillation between loss-oriented coping and restoration-oriented coping, through the lens of the holiday of Tisha B’Av and the town of Yavneh. 

The year is 70 CE, and the Romans have just sacked the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple is central to religious, spiritual and communal life, and ritual revolves around sacrificial practice within its precincts. The Jews are exiled from Israel, the great diaspora has begun, and life as they know it is over. “How can Judaism continue?” people asked. “What does it even mean to be a Jew, to practice, without the Temple?” 

At the time, many thought the destruction of the Temple would be the end of Judaism. But it wasn’t. The Judaism we know and practice now looks completely different than what Judaism looked like in the days of the Temple. So how did we get from a religion of ritual, sacrifice and Temple observance to the rich tradition we have today? 

In the last days of the Roman siege of Jerusalem, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai smuggled himself out of Jerusalem in a coffin. He fled the city and went to the town of Yavneh, where he helped establish the first rabbinic community of the diaspora. In Yavneh, rabbis gathered. They debated, they mourned, they learned, they loved, they cried. And they lived, despite crushing loss. And in Yavneh, the Talmud and rabbinic Judaism were born. 

Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai dared to imagine a future vastly different from the life he thought he would lead. The Temple was lost, but Judaism was not. The rabbis integrated the loss of Judaism as they knew it into their new future, rebuilding, step by step, a life without the Temple. And here we are today, 2000 years later, with a rich and vibrant Jewish tradition borne from the town of Yavneh. But the Temple was not forgotten. Every year, on the ninth day of Av, Tisha B’Av, we mourn. We fast, we weep, we sit shiva for the temple, we read Job and Lamentations, and we remember. We may have survived and found a new path forward, but Tisha B’Av remains. 

As we enter our third pandemic spring, what can we learn from Tisha B’Av and Yavneh? How do we create space to honor loss, to name it and say Yes: I am grieving, I have been grieving, and I will continue to grieve. And how do we also look toward the future and rebuild? What comes next? How do I keep moving forward? How do I live each day into a different future? And how can I support my community in doing the same?

Being a Head of School

What was the hardest thing that you needed to learn in your first year as a head?

Amy Wasser: The areas I had the least experience in were budget and development. I spent a lot of time with our business manager and the board treasurer learning about accounting practices, what reports were expected when and the purpose of each one. How to build a budget, and why we needed a zero balance budget, was important; it was important to me that the board understood that I did not have experience in this area and that they needed to support my ability to learn and to have patience as I did.

I also needed to become more confident in the role of fundraiser. When I began as head of school, we did not have a development director, and many of the direct asks fell to me, along with the oversight of stewardship. I went to workshops and forced myself to be confident in my ability to speak about the school to donors and make the ask!

Ilisa Cappell: Every new head faces challenging moments. From those early experiences, I learned that I needed to pause and reflect on what my difficult feelings were teaching me so that I could learn from them and strengthen myself in my leadership. Those emotions were not a sign something was wrong or that I was not the right person for the job; rather, they signaled that something I cared about was at stake. 

I learned early on that strong lay-head partnerships are at the core of strong schools. I needed to prioritize developing relationships and partnering with the board. My board comprised a group of wonderful people and they too were learning and evolving as a board. Many of them were also parents in the school. I had to invest time and energy in working with them to develop partnerships and healthy governance practices. 

I learned to share about areas in which I needed support (finance and budgeting, fundraising) so that I could acquire the skills I needed to do my job well. I found that being vulnerable with my board about both the highlighs of my work and areas of challenge provided them with the opportunities to support me in the ways I needed to be successful in the role.

What were the kinds of challenges that you felt made the job especially difficult?

Amy Wasser: For me, it was my place in the community. I had been at the school on faculty for six years when I became interim head and then head; I was a rabbi’s wife, parent in the school and young enough for many of the faculty to be my parent. I had to prove myself as a leader and find the balance for all of my roles so that I was seen as the head of school, while not losing the importance of those other hats I wore. For sure, I had to remove myself from my kids’ day-to-day actions at the school and always remind teachers that they were not to get any special treatment. (My kids told me I was harder on them than anyone else!)

I expected it to be hard to work with the parents, but other than the rare occasion, that was not the case. In those instances, it was hard when I felt I had to support a parent over a teacher (because I genuinely felt they were in the right), and it was also very hard when a parent would not respect a teacher as a professional and felt they knew better.

Ilisa Cappell: I carried a heavy emotional load because I cared so much about the teachers, the students, the parents and the community and about making what I perceived to be “the right decisions.” I understand now that sometimes the issues we were navigating were so complex that it wasn’t about making the “right” decision - It was about making decisions that were aligned with our values, about doing the best with the data we had at the moment.

Living and working in the same community felt really challenging at times. As an introverted person who held a public communal leadership position, I needed to learn to develop a sustaining approach to my work. 

There is a tension between the head’s role in managing up to the board and the board being the ones who hire/fire the head of school. I learned that the board wanted support in developing its own leadership practices, and that I had the opportunity and resources to build relationships with the board to help them become more effective in their role. At the same time, I was always acutely aware that I was the sole employee of the board, and that in order to get the feedback I needed to be successful in my role, I had to work with the board to develop a Head of School Support and Evaluation Committee; share leading practices in this area and help strengthen their capacity to provide the oversight, feedback and support I needed to flourish in the role.

Where did you find support, both inside your school community and beyond?

Amy Wasser: This was an area of weakness for me, as I did not do a good job of asking for outside support. In hindsight, I am not sure I knew I could or what was available. Being in a smaller community, I was not that well connected in the day school world (that changed over time), and I did not know about coaching, mentors, etc. 

I did get involved in our local independent school network and had some strong relationships with my fellow heads in Tampa. Because I had been on faculty, I had a good relationship with the team at school and was able to continue to build those connections. I also leaned on my admissions director, the only other full-time administrator at the time, and she was a true partner.

Ilisa Cappell: I became a part of DSLTI as I started my tenure as head of school. The support of my colleagues and mentors, coupled with the opportunity to learn about content specific to the role of head of school influenced my practice tremendously. At the time, I was also a part of (then) RAVSAK’s Reshet community. I accessed PEJE’s resources and grants for heads in transition and in specific areas like admissions, development and governance. I felt a part of something larger than myself and connected to a community of leaders whom I knew I could count on. 

I worked with a coach and developed strong mentors who cared deeply about me, and provided me with space to reflect on my practice and who cared deeply about me. I cannot stress enough the impact having a coach in my corner had on my practice. 

Faith and the recognition of this work as being in service of Hashem and the Jewish community remain at the core of my "why"- for engaging in this work. I felt closest to our mission when I was with the children, and I felt blessed to have the chance to spend time with our children each day.

Tell us about a time when you didn't see how you would manage. What enabled you to pull through?

Amy Wasser: My most difficult situations revolved around board issues. I think such a challenge for school professional leaders is having a new board chair every 2-3 years, together with their peers. When they understand good governance, it works, but when that is not in place and the lay leaders are serving for the wrong reasons, it can be a very hard and lonely place for a head.

For the most part, there were always one or two wise voices that helped to bring change, and those folks were a very meaningful support for me. Unfortunately, I endured two very public lawsuits while I was HOS; both were personal injury cases where the injury happened on campus and both went to trial. Very very stressful and not an experience I wish on any HOS; I will say the leadership was very supportive during this very hard time, twice.

Ilisa Cappell: I was the head of a small school and we were the only Jewish day school in the community. A family came to us wanting a Jewish education for their child who was on the Autism spectrum. I believe so deeply in an inclusive Jewish community and Jewish education and wanted to build a school where all children could thrive. It felt challenging to figure out how to balance what felt like our responsibility as Jews and as educators with the needs of this child, the other children in the school, and our staff who worked tirelessly to meet a range of learners in their classrooms with limited resources. 

It was also hard to manage the different perspectives on this issue and work with people whose views differed so much from my own. It helped me to be clear on the values guiding our choices, to access to resources and support from other school leaders who had navigated similar terrain, and to seek wise counsel from an incredible team of teachers (distributed leadership team) and communal leaders. Recognizing that I was operating in a complex framework for which there was no simple solution helped me to see the system in new ways. This clarity helped me to navigate the situation. 

What do you want to tell current leaders that you wish you had known when you were a head?

Amy Wasser: Get a coach; connect with other day school heads; visit more schools; know your strengths and do not be afraid to ask for help with what you do not know how to do; create a small peer to peer group for yourself; make good choices for your own professional development; don't implement too many changes at once in the program, it takes a few years to really make change last and make a difference and faculty can only adapt to a few changes at once; you do not have to hop on every bandwagon; make good choices for changes in the school; care for your staff and model that in how you care for yourself.

Ilisa Cappell: Leading schools is infinitely more complex now than it was when I began my tenure as a head of school. Investing time in developing school cultures that are psychologically safe and accountable is a core component of the head's job. Work tirelessly to ensure this is true of your school culture, and you will have created conditions where your team can thrive.

Emotional literacy and self-awareness are critical leadership dispositions that need to be nurtured and developed. At any moment, you can learn from the difficult and joyous feelings that arise daily in your practice. This learning can enable you to become more effective in your role and help you more readily support your team. 

Resiliency is not about how much you can endure, but about how well you can rest and recharge. 
Effective feedback is a game-changer. It has the capacity to help transform our practice when we are part of a community that prioritizes learning. I wish I had invested more time in normalizing and practicing giving feedback and having difficult conversations with my team and with my board.

Never underestimate the power of listening deeply and being present with the people around you.

Being a Board Chair 

In your time as a board chair, what was the biggest difficulty that you witnessed for the head being able to fulfill his or her role? 

Elissa Maier: Navigating competing demands and leaning into the role as the school executive stand out for me as being some of the more complex challenges our heads of school faced. Leading the educational direction of the school came more naturally; however, the work in leading the operational management of the school required learning new and different skills. This included getting comfortable with fundraising, making hard decisions about financial priorities and navigating the lay/professional relationships in working with a board.

Cheryl Rosenberg: Our head of school had two challenges. One was a founders’ board who were used to rolling up their sleeves and doing the work of the staff (because they had to in the beginning). Transitioning the board members out of these roles so that the head could properly manage operations with his professional staff was challenging, and many relationships were damaged and had to be repaired. The other challenge, disguised as a blessing, was a school that was growing so quickly that the administrative and operational structures could not keep up. The school went from 150 kids to 500 in three years, and the structures and personnel had to be put in place to properly manage the new reality.

Describe one or two ways that, in your personal interactions, you ensured that the head felt supported?

Elissa Maier: One of the most important ways I found to support the head was to actively listen. It was so important to allow the space for the head to share their thoughts, reactions and ideas and for them to know that our conversations were a safe place to share openly and honestly. After addressing an issue and coming to an agreed-upon solution, we always stood united as a team. We could safely agree and disagree when we worked through questions, but when we presented externally, we were always a united front.

Cheryl Rosenberg: I believe that support is often felt most when it is demonstrated both publicly and privately. For me, this often looked like keeping difficult conversations and disagreements on issues private while publicly supporting the head with both my words and actions in every situation. If a head can trust the board chair to support them publicly in all instances–with parents, staff and the board–they feel as though they have a true partner so that they are not alone in solving problems that arise.

How did you work with the rest of the board to support the head?

Elissa Maier: As someone who was knowledgeable and experienced in the role of board and best practices in governance, I prioritized the need to improve our governance practices. I worked to improve our board planning and implemented systems to ensure more effective meetings. Simple changes such as creating timed meeting agendas and sharing necessary information in advance of the meeting made a critical difference. One of the most important committees I established was a Committee on Trustees to ensure a strong succession of leaders. 

Clarity of roles and responsibilities was also key to our successful working relationship. At the beginning of my tenure, we discussed our leadership roles, agreed to how and when we wanted to communicate and articulated the things that were important to each of us to ensure a strong partnership. Having clearly articulated roles and effective communication helped us to work together successfully.

Cheryl Rosenberg: During my term as president, I established the school’s first ever head support committee, and he was able to choose the members. This allowed us to do two things: first, it gave the head of school an “insider circle” to talk to that he could trust to keep things confidential and understand his perspective; second, when there were board concerns, it allowed the board members a way and a timeline to give feedback so that it could be passed along to the head of school by the committee, eliminating board members reaching out directly to the head of school with negative feedback.

Was there one time or incident you can talk about where you made the most difference in the head's work?

Elissa Maier: I implemented a strong process for evaluation and feedback, and I think it made a significant difference. I put together a process where we gathered feedback from administrators, teachers, parents and board members. After sharing the feedback, together we developed goals for both individual growth and goals for the school. We held ourselves accountable to reviewing achievement of these goals, and this process provided a clear plan for the year. By having clearly articulated goals, we were able to work in partnership towards the achievement of these goals.

Cheryl Rosenberg: I feel very strongly about the role of the board in fundraising - that every member should give and get, and that each board member must make the school one of their top three charitable donations. I personally asked each board member for their gifts and their time in making asks, which was something the head of school historically spent a whole year working through. This allowed the head of school to focus on those asks only he could make, as well as to increase his focus on non-fundraising matters.

Were there times when you felt overwhelmed by the stress and volume of work as a board chair, and if so, how did you care for yourself?

Elissa Maier: I was fortunate to have the support and guidance of a great group of distinguished school leaders. I was able to convene and seek guidance from prior chairs of the school and seek their insights in guiding some of our more difficult decisions.

I also had a strong executive committee, whose members were my thought partners and who shared in the leadership responsibilities. My successor was identified as I began my term as president and thus was able to serve as a partner and had the opportunity to learn and prepare for her leadership role.

Cheryl Rosenberg: The times when I felt most stressed were during periods where I felt like as board members we were only privy to the challenges of running a school. During those times, it was easy to forget all of the incredible, inspiring things happening every day to transform children’s lives. I implemented a structure to ensure every board meeting started with a presentation on something positive and powerful happening in the school, and I also made it a point to frequently be present in the school for special occasions - like Maccabiah or Hallel - which nourished my soul and gave me the energy to continue the important work.