Please note that the Lookjed headline for the story is a bit misleading: the merger is of the Modern Orthodox day school partnership under Yeshiva University; the non-denominational day school programming arm of a number of philanthropists - PEJE; the community, Conservative, and Reform day school networks. Orthodox schools to the right are not involved at all. The JTA article clearly states that a major impetus to the merger is the estimated $1 million in annual savings, plus the sharing of administrative resources.
As I understand it, this is the evolution of a process that began about twelve years ago when I directed the Association of Modern Orthodox Day Schools and Yeshiva High Schools. At the time, I was concerned about competing for outside funding with the various other non-Orthodox day school networks (Yeshiva University was funding the Association on a shoestring budget). Further, it was obvious to me that if we were to join forces for fundraising purposes, we could achieve a lot more than if we each applied separately to donors. So, I called the directors of RAVSAK, and the Conservative and Reform networks and arranged a meeting at which agreement in principle was reached. Within a couple of years, these networks all joined and expanded RAVSAK's annual day school conference, and the ball was rolling.
Therefore, given the constant and growing need for more funding to meet the necessary objectives of the day school networks, I am not surprised at this merger. To my mind, it should have happened much earlier but parochial considerations played too great a part. The merger should better achieve a great many objectives that deal with basic educational needs common to all day schools: better educational methods, school climate, teacher training, board development, etc. I am confident that the leaders of the different networks, or their replacements, will still be able to access and provide assistance for the specific needs of their own constituencies in the areas of religious environment and Judaic studies/limudei kodesh.
Respectfully,
Jeremiah Unterman
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2016 02:26PM by mlb.
