It seems reasonable that since we are in the season of housecleaning in order to get ready for Passover, I would take care of some housecleaning of my own by providing updates on important activities:
We have successfully completed this year’s standardized testing! Congrats to all our students and teachers for getting all those bubbles bubbled in properly with #2 pencils! We eagerly await our results and using those results to improve. For a thorough review out how our school treats the testing process, please click here.
For useful suggestions on preparing to facilitate or participate in an active, engaging Passover Seder experience, please click here.
Still awaiting our official FCIS (Florida Council of Independent Schools) report to share with y’all…
Cannot be more excited for next week’s “No Office Day – Part II: The Student-Principal Swap” taking place on Wednesday! The idea was the subject of last week’s blog post, here, and the reflection will hopefully be the subject of next week’s.
edJEWcon has officially been born! We had our first webinar yesterday with all 21 school teams and a webinar for our 13 patterning agencies is coming soon. It was so extraordinary see this dream become a reality and the excitement for the conference was (and is) palpable. The website for edJEWcon has really taken off and, in the spirit of transparency, you can relive the webinar on the site, see the expanded list of schools, read up on the speakers, etc. The temptation for hyperbole is strong within me, but it is hard not to hope that this might be a game-changing event – for the field and for our school.
Final piece of housecleaning…the Task Force for Creating an “Academy” at the Jacksonville Jewish Center (click here for background) officially wrapped up its yearlong project last night! Although the governing principles and strategic plans still have a few more votes to pass through, the basic structure for the launch of the new Galinsky Academy on July 1, 2012 is in place. Here is the scoop (from an article in the March 2012 Jacksonville Jewish News):
The Jacksonville Jewish Center is please to announce the launch of The Galinsky Academy.
The Academy is named for Samuel and Esther Galinsky, of blessed memory, who gave the largest gift of Jewish education in the history of the Jacksonville Jewish Center.
The Academy will bring together, under one umbrella, all of the school of the Jacksonville Jewish Center.
The JJC Preschool, the Bernard and Alice Selevan Religious School, the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School and the Makom Hebrew High will work together under Academy Head, Dr. Jon Mitzmacher to fulfill the mission of offering the highest-quality Jewish educational experience for children from “Shalom Baby” through high school graduation. By leveraging the resources of all four schools, parents can feel confident that their children will benefit from the most cutting-edge Jewish educational programming available.
Bruce Horovitz, former executive director of the Center said, “The Galinsky gift was very significant on so many levels. It was certainly never on our radar and came as a complete surprise. The fact that Samuel and Esther Galinsky, who had no children of their own, would choose to make an everlasting impact on Jewish education speaks volumes. The gift came at a time of enormous need for the JJC schools and allowed the Center to continue and even expand our educational initiatives. The Galinsky gift continues to have a major impact on Jewish education, and we are forever grateful for their kindness and generosity to the entire Jewish community.”
Esther Galinsky contributed to a multitude of charitable organizations. Because of her modest nature, her charitable giving went mostly unrecognized in her lifetime.
When she was homebound, in her later years, she especially enjoyed the periodic visits from the Day School students on their mitzvah trips.
Dr. Mitzmacher said, “Galinsky Academy will be a salad bowl, not a melting pot, of 21st century Jewish education. Each school will retain its unique brand and structure while benefiting from the expertise of the others.”
For the more visual-minded, you can get a taste of the values we hope Galinsky Academy will inculcate in its students by enjoying this Wordle from an early visioning exercise:
