With the utmost humility and the sincerest of gratitude, it is my great honour and pleasure to announce what may be the largest single gift our school has ever received. An anonymous donor in our community has decided to invest $1,500,000 to help ensure that our classrooms and learning spaces are as innovative as our teaching and programming.
This represents an extraordinary moment for our school – its students, parents, teachers, supporters and community – on our journey towards long-term sustainability. Yes, of course, what happens inside the classrooms is more important than the rooms themselves. But there’s no question that more innovative learning spaces allow for more innovative learning experiences. This generous gift and the opportunity it presents will make a huge difference in the lives of OJCS students and teachers for a generation to come.
It is also worth saying that this new commitment to our school not only validates the hard work our teachers and board have put in over these past few years, but raises the bar for what we hope to accomplish in the years ahead. We hope that it also puts a smile on the faces of our current and prior set of major donors, including the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, without whose contributions would never have made this gift possible. We accept this gift not as a celebration of what we have done, but as a charge for what we now must do.
So…what happens next?
A lot! Especially if we are going to try to start the work over the summer so that at least some of our newly upgraded classrooms and spaces will be ready for use at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year! There will be lots of behind-the-scenes work with architect firms, general contractors, construction firms and vendors as we work to design our “classrooms of the future”. As we did with the construction of our OJCS Makerspace – funded by a generous grant from the Congregation Beth Shalom Legacy Fund – we will soon be convening groups of teachers and students for visioning sessions to ensure that “teacher voice” and “student voice” are appropriately included in the design.
It will be our pleasure to share designs as they come in and it will be our pleasure to show any current or prospective families the spaces we are discussing as it becomes more clear. We are so proud at OJCS to have this opportunity to do such important and transformational work. It is just another example of how OJCS is becoming an educational leader in our community.
Fantastic news, and you’re well-equipped to scope out the design principles you want your architects and interior designers to put to work. Make them work hard!