Category: Community Building

I have learned a lot of important lessons over the last month.  One of those lessons?  It is very easy to espouse “transparency” as a value when things are going well and/or when the issues are simple and non-controversial.  It is another thing altogether when things are more complex, risky and deeply personal.  As a complicated episode in my professional life has played out over the last few weeks, I have felt compromised between my professional desire for transparency and my personal desire for privacy.  I have struggled with the decision about whether or not it was appropriate to utilize this “professional” blog – property of the school, not the person – to discuss events which have had a profound impact on not just me, but my family.  With the episode (thankfully) resolved, it just did not seem right to pretend that it never happened (by its absence in my primary vehicle for reflective practice, this blog).  

[I realize that although the primary audience for this blog was and is the school family, there is an extended readership who may or may not be interested in some of its content. I try to manage those potential audiences through how I do (or don’t) promote the blog via social media.  Another side-effect of “transparency”?  If the boundaries were semi-permeable before, they sometimes feel as if they have disappeared altogether.  I’m not sure this is a good thing, but it feels like the truth.]

The facts are relatively straightforward and have been public knowledge since November 1st.  An unanticipated opportunity to compete as a finalist for the headship of Sinai Akiba Academy in Los Angeles, CA resulted in my exercise of an opt-out clause in my current contract.  My wife and I went to LA for our finalist visit and returned to Jacksonville. After meeting with my lay leadership here, I withdrew my candidacy for the position at Sinai Akiba and have renewed my commitment to remain here at MJGDS.

It seems so simple when you write it like that!

Both institutions handled this delicate situation with tremendous grace and with incredible transparency.  A series of public meetings here in Jacksonville with all concerned constituencies (parents, faculty, boards, etc.) resulted in the formation of a search committee charged with seeking out my replacement (since closed).  My candidacy in Los Angeles was a matter of public record on the school’s website and my finalist visit was conducted openly as all such visits are.

Needless to say, the situation left me (and my family) rather exposed on all sides.  That it was self-imposed did little to dull the piercing spotlight the month of November has brought to us.  Again, let me clear.  The choices were mine.  The responsibility for them was mine.  And the situation could not have been handled any more professionally or compassionately by everyone.  But I would be lying if I suggested that it also was not deeply and personally stressful.  It was, in fact, agonizing.

As I said to the search committee for Sinai Academy when I withdrew…

“…I write to officially notify you of my decision to renew my commitment here in Jacksonville, thus withdrawing my candidacy from Sinai Akiba.  I thank you all for your hospitality, your warm welcome, and the opportunity to have been a finalist.  I am confident with lay leaders like yourself and the high quality of your other candidates that only bright days lay ahead for Sinai Akiba.  I look forward to following your success and working with your next head as a fellow Schechter colleague.

Thank you again for the time and care you put into my candidacy.”

I have nothing, but positive things to say about Sinai Akiba Academy.  We met lovely people during our visit and our desire for their continued success is genuine.  But our decision and our future is here – at the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School, the Jacksonville Jewish Center and in Jacksonville, Florida.  And for that we are thankful.

We have barely begun to write a chapter in the book of the life of this remarkable school which turns 50 this spring.  The idea of leaving so much exciting work undone certainly contributed to my professional desire to continue as head of this school.  It has been a dynamic and satisfying year and a half since we came here, but the “job” of becoming the school we wish to be is hardly “done” (if such a thing in an organic learning organization could ever be accomplished)!  We have so many exciting projects in the near and long-term future. [I don’t want to use this post to re-list all the initiatives and ideas that are in progress or fomenting.  A quick scroll through this blog or our school’s website provides a thorough recap.]  I couldn’t imagine not being part of them.  And I am thankful that I don’t have to.

But more than the work are the people…

…as I wrote to my teachers last week:

“As we enter into a holiday week, let me take a moment to express my gratitude to all of you for the opportunity to be part of this team.  As you know, it has been a topsy-turvy few weeks for me (and for everyone) as events unfolded, but it is with genuine humility that I tell you that a most significant factor in wanting to remain here is the opportunity to continue to work together to make this the finest, most innovative, highest-quality school it can possibly be.  I come to work each day excited about what we can accomplish together.  I am thrilled to have the chance to continue this journey with you and look forward to brighter and brighter days ahead.”

And I gladly extend those thoughts to this entire community – parents, students, colleagues, communal partners, etc.

 

So as we head into Thanksgiving tomorrow…let me express how joyously thankful I am for the blessings in my life:  The blessing of a healthy family.  The blessing of a caring community.  The blessing of blossoming friendships.  The blessing of fulfilling work.  The blessing of committed and generous lay leaders and volunteers.  The blessing of extraordinary colleagues.  The blessing of dedicated and talented staff and faculty.  The blessing to have an opportunity to work each and every day with others to ensure a Jewish future.  The blessing to feel one’s roots dig a little deeper into sacred ground.

For these blessings and more, I am thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Yesterday morning, my first grader, Eliana, woke up early to come into our room to make extra sure that we had remembered to put her MJGDS Marlins shirt in her day-of-the-week clothes organizer because she had to wear it for spirit day.

Each time I passed her in the hallway, she reminded me that I was to get her out of aftercare in time for her to watch the big game.

When I came to pick her up in aftercare to walk her over to the gym, she (and her 3-year old sister) was so excited she flew out of the room.

Eliana had never seen, nor probably heard, of “volleyball” prior to yesterday’s first home game in school history.  Didn’t matter a whit.  She had spirit.

And she was not alone!  We had an overwhelming amount of students, parents, alumni and supporters in attendance to share in history.  We won the first (of three) game and as we drew closer to the clinching point, you would have thought we were about to win the Final Four, not the first game of a girls middle school volleyball match!

I blogged last week, here, about the value of athletics in the (small) Jewish day school after our first road game.  The energy yesterday afternoon,  however, took things to exponential levels.  It really proves the point; in terms of rallying school spirit, it is really hard to top athletics.  And school spirit is not insignificant.  It is not as important as academic achievement, inculcating Jewish values, and developing character.  But in terms of that intangible “something” that gives you pride in being part of something larger than yourself and encourages you to want your children to be part of something special?  It is hard to put your finger on it, but you can kind of tell when you’ve got it or when you don’t.  And heading into another sweet Jewish new year…we’ve got it!

 

In other updates, we went live this week with edJEWcon and our first application from another Schechter Network Day School came in within the first few hours!  We have been utilizing our social media and with the Network’s social media roll-out to begin soon, the buzz on the event will only continue to grow.  (For continuing updates on the conference, click here.  For background information on edJEWcon, click here.)  So when it comes to 21st century learning, MJGDS certainly has spirit as well.

 

Heading into Rosh Hashanah this evening feels this year to me like slipping into a comfortable, warm bath.  I have a wonderful opportunity to put workaday concerns aside and concentrate on making meaningful use of the gifts of time, family and friends.  After relying on the kindness of the community last year, Jaimee and I are blessed to be able to open up our home to new friends this year.  We are looking forward to days of communal meals, honest reflection and creating Jewish memories to carry us forward into 5772.

From my family to yours, let me wish everyone the sweetest of new Jewish years…

Shanah tova u’metukah,

Jon, Jaimee, Eliana & Maytal

 

Let’s begin with a hearty “Mazel tov” to Coach Jared Goldman and the MJGDS Lady Marlins Volleyball team on their historic first match this past week at Hendricks Middle School!  (Check out this article in our local news here!)

Our school turns fifty years old this year and this was the very first athletic adventure we have ever embarked on.  The final score mattered not a whit (and, yes, we did score points as well) – the excitement from the student-athletes, their parents, alumni, and supporters who packed the tiny parking lot and bleacher seats was palpable and meaningful.  Our girls did their best and will only perform better as they grow more experienced and practiced in their sport.  [Local plug: First home game in MJGDS history takes place in the gym on Tuesday, September 27th at 4:30 PM.  Wear your Marlins gear and come out to support our team!]

So as one of my favorite sports shows would ask, is launching middle school athletics at our K-8 Schechter Day School a “big deal, little deal, or no deal at all?”

Big deal!

First let’s look at it from the perspective of the participants.  Let me quote (liberally) from “Co-Curricular Physical Activity and Sport Programs for Middle School Students: A Position Statement by the National Association for Sporty and Physical Education’s (NASPE) Middle and Secondary School Physical Education Council (MASSPEC).”  [That is a mouthful!  You can read the entire position statement here.]:

“All students should be encouraged to participate in such after-school programs regardless of their ability and prior experience with organized sports. The primary purposes of these programs are to provide opportunities for students to:

1. improve self-esteem and feelings of competence through positive interactions with their peers and adults
2. acquire new skills and refine those previously learned
3. learn to function effectively as members of a team or group
4. improve personal health and fitness levels
5. to have fun and enjoy physical activity”

Those all sound like things we would like to see for our middle school students, no?

But beyond the benefits to the participants there are significant benefits to our school and our community worth mentioning.

Athletics are vitally important to our ability to maintain and grow a healthy middle school.  They demonstrate to ourselves and our parents that we are capable of providing the kinds of experiences one ought to find at the middle school level.  And that includes the opportunity to play, cheer and support athletics.  (I thought our alumni were as, or more, excited about the volleyball game than the players or their parents!)

Jewish Day Schools – especially the small or midsize ones – have a lot to get done.  We have to offer 100% the secular academic programs of local independent and/or suburban public schools.  We have to offer the highest-quality Jewish studies program available.  We have to offer all the resources of well-rounded schools – Art, Music, Library, 21st Century Learning, P.E., etc. AND we also have to offer athletics, the school play, the yearbook, TV production, and all the other extracurriculars.

Fair?

Doesn’t matter.  It isn’t a choice.  Non-orthodox day schools heading into middle (and high) school face enormous attrition challenges.  We have to find the “torah” of volleyball as we do the “torah” of math (not to mention the “torah” of the actual Torah).  We, at our school, have dipped our first toe in the water.  It certainly isn’t easy finding sports we have a critical mass to compete in, but based on the energy it has brought to our school and our community it was well worth it.

We may not be hanging any championship banners from our gym any time soon.  But we will be adding great spirit and community-building to our school when we host the first home game in the school’s 50 year history next week.

Go Marlins!

It is storming outside.

And for too many I know and care about this week, it has been storming inside as well.

So I offer for those of faith who cannot make sense of what life is presently delivering a poem.  I find that there are moments when prose simply will not do.

The following poem is unpublished and was written by Elisa Ewoldt, a close friend for nearly 25 years.  She captures the struggling soul in a way I find both startling and oddly comforting.  May it bring comfort to those who seek it.

god

I’m trying to move you out,

I’m needing to kick you out,

Create some additional space,

Free up some room in my mind for matters more consequential,

More substantial…

But I lie.

You are substance and consequence

You are a virus colonized in my heart my mind my lungs my glands

And there is no medium that can push you out.

I cannot speak fast enough,

I cannot write fast enough,

I cannot type fast enough,

I cannot beat you to the punch line or understand the stand up routine you perform.

And all the things I think I Know become things I only thought I knew

And all the things I think are Truth become things I tell myself in order to get through.

I am not at home here with you

I am not at home when you are in residence inside my intimate thoughts.

My home becomes a stage for execution with you presiding.

My brain seizes, I try to find something, anything, to grapple with that is not you

I create miscellaneous misanthropic beliefs and assign them to you

I decide what you believe and I attribute to you all brands of larceny.

You are not this colony in my mind. You are a wayside attraction, the largest ball of string, a museum above a highway, an unmarked detour on unmarked roads.

You cannot be this to me.

But you are.

And it is a terrible, beautiful, glorious travesty

We had our final meeting of teachers and staff this morning to officially wrap up the 2010-2011 school year!  Woo-hoo!  School’s out…for summer!

But before we turn the page entirely on the year that was AND before we share some of the “Coming Attractions” for 2011-2012 (an upcoming, post-vacation blog post!), I thought I would take a final stab at transparency and share a reflection of how I thought I did this year in my first year as Head of the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School.  [I reflected last week (here) about my adventures in 21st century learning this past year, but that is only one aspect of my role as head of school.]  What follows are actual excerpts from the self-evaluation I wrote and submitted to my “Head Support & Evaluation Subcommittee” as part of my overall evaluative process.  We have asked all of our teachers to post reflections of their years on our (closed) ning as part of promoting the value of shared reflection.  I want to do my part by sharing excerpts of my reflection for y’all (did that sound authentically southern enough?  It has almost been a year!):

Jon’s Self-Evaluation “Students”:

I think in this area we took a number of important first steps this year.  We created academic standards for each grade and subject by Winter Break and were able to disseminate benchmarks as part of the Admissions Process.  We created and disseminated a variety of survey instruments, failing only to send out and score an “Alumni Survey” for this year’s freshman class.

We have also taken great strides in our outreach to special needs families and in our current practice in putting together processes for dealing with the mechanics of delivering services.  We take it as a positive sign that KoleinuJax has gifted us (in collaboration with Jewish Family & Community Services and the Jewish Community Foundation of Northeast Florida) the monies necessary to expand our program next year by allowing us to hire and train additional support staff in classes where we have children with special needs.

One additional area I would like to improve upon for next year is my own personal investment in teaching and establishing relationships with students.  I taught First Grade Tefillah once a week this year; I may expand upon that next year.  I taught MS Tefillah once a week this year; I may seek to find additional opportunities to teach in the MS as well.  I take it as a positive sign that students have been sending me letters, emails and making appointments to meet with me when they have questions and concerns, but I would like to do a better job next year of working on developing meaningful relationships with my students.  It is a time management challenge (what isn’t!), but one worth solving.

Jon’s Self-Evaluation “Faculty”:

I think I have successfully implemented an evaluative process that has not been active in some number of years.  I believe we have created an environment where teachers have reached the higher bar we have mutually set.

My takeaway from the survey data from the faculty is that I have room for growth in providing more regular positive feedback.  I do not compliment as often as I would like to and because I am not shy about providing critique, it can create an imbalance.  My experience is that in time as we all get to know each other better it becomes less and less of an issue, but that does not mean I shouldn’t try harder to provide positive reinforcement.  Next year, I want to put up a bulletin board in the faculty room where we share positive thoughts with each other and then make it a personal goal to put one up a day.  That will create good habits.

I also want to make more of an effort to spend more time developing personal relationships.  It is so hard to find the time, but if I am serious about creating a family atmosphere it will be necessary.

We did a good job of providing professional development to our Jewish Studies Faculty.  We have provided more opportunities for teachers to teach each other during our Faculty Meetings which are now hosted by a different teacher each month in her classroom and has a theme.  I would like next year to try to send a few more teachers out to receive subject matter expertise that they can bring back – for example, Judy Reppert could attend a seminar and then lead a faculty meeting and share what she learned.  I would like our MS Faculty to serve more as “department chairs” for the Lower School in their areas of expertise.

Jon’s Self-Evaluation “Parents”:

Teaching “Parent University” and establishing a blog were two big goals for this year.  It takes a lot of time to keep up the weekly blogs and to prepare and teach the class, but it is worth it and then some.  The twice-yearly face-to-face meetings with parents yielded vital information and hopefully positively contributed to retention.

I also think I’ll be able next year to expand my reach into Shabbat and holiday programming which will better foster the school-shul relationship and the kinds of meaningful carryover we are all looking for.

I think, similarly to faculty, I could do a better job with volunteer recognition and appreciation.  I need to take the extra step to ensure that people feel appreciated for the volunteering they do.  I try hard now, but I think I can grow in making sure people feel they have my full attention whenever we are speaking.  My mind races a million miles an hour, but I don’t ever want a parent to feel that I am not keenly interested in their issue at the moment we are speaking.

 

So…that’s that!  I hope having an opportunity to peek inside my process from time to time is useful; it is for me!

I told the teachers this morning that I am typically as excited about summer vacation as they are…but honestly?  I am so enthusiastic about what is planned for next year that I almost wish we could skip to Pre-Planning…

Almost!