Academic Excellence - The Ongoing Journey

When I developed our revamped strategic plan a couple of years ago, one of the key pillars was a focus on academic excellence.  The trustees decided it was critical to ensure Wornick had a competitive, academically rigorous curriculum,"steeped in critical thinking" as we state in the school's mission statement.  Dr. Gereboff had just assumed the role of Head when this plan was implemented, and in the intervening years, Dr. Gereboff has made tremendous strides to bring Wornick's academic excellence to a whole new level.  Here's a perfect example -- watch Shona Schwartz present critical thinking in our middle school social studies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iLvTsWig1Y

The focus on academic excellence is a process of iterative refinement as we continually review best practices to integrate. As we address the curriculum overall, we notice that differentiation within the classroom comes into focus, both for the challenged and gifted. To that end, Wornick is undertaking two projects.   

• We are now a pilot school for the new Rosh Pina Project, a learning differentiation and special needs certification program where our staff, trustees, and community educational consultants will evaluate how we handle differentiation today, identify the gaps between what we need to serve and what we can serve, and how we create a road-map to fill in the gaps we feel we should address. 

• The second project is exploring education innovations for differentiation and affordability, which has an exploratory committee comprised of parents, educators and consultants.  This committee is looking for new ways to deliver curriculum as well as engaging and preparing students for the expectations of high school, college and life, while potentially broadening the population of students we can educate.  Some focus areas include blended learning -- a combination of computer-delivered content and students working self-paced and independently with teachers as coaches; the feasibility of single-sex classes that address academic and emotional differences in how boys and girls learn so that we can maximize impact; and experiential learning which builds on our project-based learning by adding more, differentiated, cross-subjects. This research will result in a proposal that Dr. Gereboff and the board of trustees will decide in what to invest and implement.  

Between these two projects our hope is to better educate our current student body and possibly open the doors to a broader set of children. If you are interested in participating in either of these, please contact Esther Gillette (egillette@wornickjds.org).

Roger Feigelson

Feast Your Mind

It seems you can't turn around these days without tripping over some messaging about Feast Your Mind -- and with good reason.  This is one of the most important events of the year for the school.  Not only do the direct funds raised from the evening support growing the programs offered by the school, bringing them to higher and more powerful levels, but also helping to make a Wornick education more accessible.  There's plenty of room to grow the Wornick community -- and the bigger the community, the more resources we can have.  Perhaps just as importantly, this event draws in the greater Jewish community that is not directly affiliated with the school.  Building strong relationships and growing our long-term donor base is also critical to growing our school.

To that end, I want to draw your attention to one aspect of FYM.  We are looking for corporate sponsors as another venue to raise funds for the school and broaden our exposure.  Here are the details of the sponsorships. If you know of any good candidates, please let Lindsay (lkopecky@wornickjds.org) in the office know and she can arrange to send a letter out.

Sponsorship levels:

Diamond: $5,000+

•  Full page color ad in inside cover of event brochure

•  Name and logo on event signage

•  Name and logo on event website

•  Mention in event email communications

•  Special thanks in community newsletter

•  Verbal thanks at the event

Platinum: $2,500+

•  Full page color ad in event brochure

•  Name and logo on event signage

•  Name and logo on event website

•  Mention in event email communications

•  Special thanks in community newsletter

Gold: $1,250+

•  Half page ad in event brochure

•  Name and logo on event signage

•  Name and logo on event website

•  Mention in event email communications

Silver: $750+

•  Quarter page ad in event brochure

•  Name and logo on event signage

•  Name and logo on event website

•  Mention in event email communications

Bronze: $500+

•  Name and logo in event brochure

•  Name and logo on event signage

•  Name and logo on event website

Welcome from our new Board President

I attended the new family welcome last Sunday for the elementary school and was quite unprepared for my emotional reaction to seeing all the new families gathered together.  I was so truly thrilled to see so many new faces and my heart swelled to see them integrating into the Wornick community, embarking on this new adventure.  For me that adventure started 8 years ago when my first born started in Kindergarten.  I can't believe she is entering 8th grade this year and I'm also a little envious of those getting this new start.  If I had to do it all over again, there's no question that I would.

Before we look forward to this new year, I want to take a moment to look back and honor past president Joelle Kaufman.  Joelle took the helm a few years ago while the school was undergoing a significant transition, including bringing in one of the school's most valuable assets - Dr. Barbara Gereboff.  It took much patience, tenacity, vision and leadership to bring the school from good to great and much of what you see today is a result of work that happened during her tenure.   I'd like to thank Joelle for her dedication and for being one of the most vocal proponents of the school (a role I'm sure she will continue) and most importantly for creating a solid foundation upon which I will now build in the next few years.

Now to look forward.  This year and beyond, the trustees (and hopefully all of you reading this will play a part, too) will focus on recruitment and development.  Nothing shocking here.  We want to continue promoting the school as a top-of-the-line academic institution that is a compelling place for parents to send their children so we drive enrollment higher and higher.  The more children we have, the more programs and resources the school can offer - and everyone benefits. Development is critical as well.  The cost of a Wornick education is worth every penny, and I sincerely believe that.  However, not every family can afford to pay full price. The more money we raise through the Chai Excellence Fund campaign and Feast Your Mind, the bigger the pool of money we have available to provide tuition assistance and therefore the more access we can provide to such a remarkable institution.  But we'll have much more about both of these topics in the upcoming months.  For now, enjoy the start of a new school year, the blissful routine that it offers all of us, and the warm and caring Wornick community of which you are a part.

Shabbat Shalom,

Roger Feigelson

The kids get it - Kol K'vod Class of 2014

The Tzedakah Project is an incredible culmination of education in critical thinking, clear communication, analysis and values.  Every agency recipient is deeply moved that they were selected, impressed by the thoroughness and maturity of our students as they did their research and honored to receive the donation that the students worked so hard to generate.

One of the two rules of the Tzedakah project allocation is that 10% of the funds must go to a Jewish agency and that every agency researched by a student must receive something and it cannot be equal amounts to all those agencies.  This difficult and painful lesson in allocation is real - on the Board where we approved the budget last night, we struggle with funding a rigorous, dynamic dual curriculum, attracting the most students and striving to make our program affordable. There are no easy answers for us or our students.

Some of the 2014 Class ProjectsOur seventh graders choose to honor the Jewish institutions in the Northern Peninsula that have made the biggest impact on their lives.  They made grants to Peninsula Temple Beth El and Peninsula Sinai Congregation.  And for the first time in my Board tenure, they made a class contribution to Wornick for tuition assistance. As a class, they reflected on the impact Wornick has had on their lives, their friendships and their values. And as a class, they learned from some of their friends that without tuition assistance, they would not have been able to learn at Wornick. 

Tuition assistance is essential to our mission. The Board reviewed the financial components considered in the anonymous, needs-based process. Those components include income, assets, obligations as well as cost of living and savings requirements. In the fall, Dr. Gereboff and the administrative team will be offering a program on financial planning for day school, one session in English and the other in Hebrew. I hope everyone will attend.

It is with great honor, appreciation and nachas that our Board appreciates the generosity of the Class of 2014. Their gift will help more children and more families be part of the Wornick community.  Kol K'vod!

Jewish Values in Action

Our seventh grade taught the Board that Tzedakah means justice. We welcomed two representatives from the Wornick Seventh Grade to present their classes Tzedakah Project. This project is the pinnacle of a Wornick education - multi-disciplinary, year long, research and communication driven and focused on giving of yourself and working as a community to repair the world.  We are all looking forward to the May 10 Tzedakah project presentation.

Justice is a core value of our faith and our institution. The Trustees took the time to discuss our behavior and communication policies and ask questions to ensure that the behavior policy signed by every parent and student in August (by September 2) was being consistently applied throughout the school.  Parents should look for the online version of this policy (to be published shortly in the event that you no longer have your copy) to ensure transparency as to the policy and its continued administration.

As always, the Board meetings are open to the public with our agenda published at http://wtrustees.squarespace.com (also linked from the Board section of this website).  Community members can also submit a request for the Board to discuss a topic on that same website.  Upcoming Board meetings will address development and accomodating many learning styles and needs.