What Exactly is an "Abatement"

Moriah has a tuition abatement program that is separate from its scholarship program.  See link to last year's application here, or summarized after the jump.

Basically it allows middle income earners to get a little off from tuition by showing their tax returns but without having to go through the scholarship process that some find shameful.

To qualify you must have children in yeshiva (not necessarily in Moriah) from Pre-K thru high school and be making under certain amounts as follows:
1 Child & making less than $135K
2 Children & making less than $175K
3 Children & making less than $210K
4 Children & making less than $240K

[UPDATE: Those were last years minimums that are higher this year.  Now you can make up to $270K & get the abatement if you have 4 or more children]

I think the premise of the program is that if they simply lower tuition some of the "wealthy" parents will just pay the lower amount, without making up for it with any significant donations, and they will lose revenue.  If they just raised the threshold for scholarships some of the "middle class" parents would leave rather than have to apply for a scholarship and feel like they are taking tzeddakka.  This way its more of a sliding scale.  Sort of like the progressive income tax system we have where "middle class" families pay less than the wealthy & no one considers that charity.

The question is if you are getting 3K off per child & aren't donating you probably aren't paying your share.  So is that charity or just part of a progressive payment system?

Also, does this system allow those earning money "off-the-books" to get a reduction without any scrutiny beyond looking at their bogus W-2's?  Then again often full scholarship recipients don't get much scrutiny beyond their W-2's which are usually bogus when someone works off-the-books, but that's a separate topic.

One thing I like about the program is that they look at the total number of kids you have in yeshiva, not just the ones at Moriah.  So you don't get "punished" for sending different children to different schools.  All schools should adopt that policy for their scholarship programs.

RYNJ Tuition Remains (Truly) Flat for 2013/2014

Dear RYNJ Parents,

Baruch Hashem, we are close to completing another very successful year at RYNJ. While it is still a few weeks before our doors close for the summer, the planning for our next school year is well underway.

The Board of Directors has approved the budget for the 2013 – 2014 school year. We extend gratitude to our Finance Committee who worked tirelessly to prepare a budget that is fiscally responsible, recognizes and appreciates our staff’s dedication and maintains our commitment to Torah scholarship and academic excellence, while being sensitive to the hardship that paying for a Yeshiva education may create.

It is with great pleasure that I inform you that once again, tuition at RYNJ will remain flat for the upcoming school year. We are proud to have had no significant increase for the past 6 years and we remain committed to keeping our tuition steady for the foreseeable future.

Incidental and trip fees will once again be absorbed by the Yeshiva and will not be charged to parents.

Projected enrollment for 2013 – 2014 is once again at a record high and will necessitate the hiring of new staff to accommodate our growing student body. We are pleased to be providing our returning staff with a modest pay raise.

We have worked diligently and successfully to maintain our financial stability. While some of our costs have gone up and the Yeshiva has invested in numerous areas including professional development and technology to improve the education that we offer, it is a true credit to our administration and lay leadership that tuition remains steady. When factoring in inflation, it actually amounts to a 2% reduction in tuition for the year.

When I wrote to you at the beginning of this school year, I told you that the growth of our student body brings with it some logistical challenges as we must work to find enough room in the building to serve the needs of our children. I have made it one of the goals of my presidency to do whatever is needed to make certain that we do not have to turn away new families due to space constraints. As you may know, due to the very large number of children that we serve, the scheduling of physical education and indoor recess has become exceedingly difficult. With our children’s health and safety as our primary concern, the Board of Directors has begun to research options to alleviate this issue.

Later this week, we will release our 2nd Annual Report representing our continued effort towards transparency in our financials and the security of our financial future. The report is a tremendous accomplishment for the Yeshiva. I would like to express our gratitude to Shira Isenberg, Glenn Pfeiffer, Adina Wiener, Allen Pfeiffer and Uri Jacobs for all their hard work putting it together.

As guardians of our children and grandchildren's education, we remain committed to ensuring that the Yeshiva's finances remain on solid footing. As always, we are dedicated to providing all RYNJ students with a first class Limudei Kodesh and Limudei Chol education. We strongly believe that every Jewish child deserves a Torah education. If this proves to be a burden to any family we will offer financial assistance to those in need.

I invite and encourage you to contact me with any comments, questions or concerns.

Wishing you a Chag Sameach and continued nachas from all of our children.

Azi Mandel
President

Yavneh Freezes Tuition (except for additional $250 security fee)

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I am writing to report that Yavneh Academy’s Board has approved the budget for the upcoming 2013-14 fiscal year.

As a result of hard work and cooperation by Rabbi Knapp, Joel Kirschner, our Finance committee and its Chair; Adam Fried, we have once again struck the right balance between educational excellence and affordability.

In recent years, Yavneh has led the community effort to reign in spiraling tuition costs.  Yavneh broke historic ground by being the first local Yeshiva Day School to cut tuition in 2011. Last year, we instituted a significant cut in Early Childhood tuition, a more modest cut for K-5, and a tuition freeze for grades 6-8.

We are pleased to announce that there will be no tuition increase for 2013-14. The tuition freeze will be school wide.

We were able to achieve this, not only because of our fiscal responsibility, but because of a robust increase in our projected enrollment for next year, despite the expanded number of Jewish educational options in our growing community.

Events of the past year have unfortunately reminded us that we must always be vigilant when it comes to the safety of our children. As such, we are instituting a $250 security fee per family. This fee is reflective of the times in which we live. This money will be specifically earmarked for staffing and technological and capital enhancements that will further ensure the safety of our students and will enable us to work cooperatively with our recently formed Security Committee in continuing to safeguard our children's security and well being

Great things are happening at Yavneh, and I encourage you to get involved in your children’s school, not only for their benefit, but for the benefit of generations to come. We look forward to seeing you at Yavneh’s annual meeting on May 6th.

Eric Fremed

President, Yavneh Academy

2 Days Left to be BOLD

The BOLD initiative, sponsored by the AJE Project, The AVI CHAI Foundation, and the Kohelet Foundation, is offering grants to existing schools to implement Blended Learning

Schools have until 4pm this coming Tuesday to apply.

I still have a few questions that the BOLD website left unanswered.  These are not rhetorical questions that are intended to provoke skepticism.  These are genuine questions that if answered satisfactorily could allay some of the skepticism found on this blog & various other media.  Perhaps one of our readers can elucidate.

First, "schools have realized overall operating cost reductions of 25% and per pupil cost savings of $1000"  What does this mean?  Are these two separate cost savings, one per pupil and based on the total operating costs, that can be added up?  Why not simply combine them since most operating costs can be calculated per student.  If they are one and the same, just two different ways to calculate the same savings, $1,000 seems like a lot less than 25% based on the tuitions of most local schools.

Second, the following are listed as methods used by blended learning to reduce costs:

1. Reducing and repurposing existing curricular and text budgets
2. Redefining teacher and staff roles and reallocating personnel resources
3. Increased class size coupled with greater personalization
4. Increased student enrollment fostered by innovative programs and personalized learning

Could we see some specific examples of these methods being used at He'atid or other schools?  For item #1 are textbooks really a significant portion of the budget?  are they less than technology costs?  Doesn't the State partially subsidize them?

Are teachers doubling as administrators or vice versa as point #2 seems to suggest?  Are they doing it more than, say, Noam, which has always had administrators teaching a few subjects

For #3 are student teacher ratios significantly different at He'atid or other blended learning schools than they are at traditional schools?  Can we get some numbers on that?

For #4 does increased enrollment lead to lower costs per student?  What if the building is already at capacity or if more enrollment means you need to expand or move?

Moriah Town Hall Session

Moriah had a "Town Hall Session" on Monday to discuss the recent changes they've made to keep tuition flat for this coming year.  There's another one tonight at 8:00.

Here's what one reader wrote about the session Monday night:

"..it was great! They are working incredibly hard to achieve tuition sustainability. They are eliminating the multi child discount and raising the income level for which one can receive an abatement. This way it will be more of a needs based discount instead of an across the board discount. They were giving an AVERAGE of 78% discount to faculty members. The highest other school is Ramaz at 60% cap. Noam and Yavneh are 50% and 40% respectively. They are moving to a 60% cap. They recognize the shrinking enrollment but it's not necessarily a problem if they budget correctly for it. They are also moving to improve the morale."

"Also they reduced the number of administrators which is drastically reducing their salary expense."

Yasher Koach to Moriah for making the hard but, unfortunately, necessary decisions to stop the annual rises in tuition that their parents had become accustomed to.

Register to Vote

See letter below from the president of the Board of Yavneh:

I am writing to you to share some thoughts about a serious issue affecting our school and New Jersey’s Orthodox Jewish community. 

Education Affordability is a major issue affecting our families and our schools. The Orthodox Union has formed NJVotes, a campaign dedicated to increasing voter participation in every election and by doing so making our community known to our Legislators and obtaining their support for increased State funding for day schools and families.

This year we have a unique opportunity. New Jersey's entire 120-member Legislature and Governor are up for re-election in the June Primary.  Because this election does not coincide with a Presidential race, voter turnout is usually low, typically less that 12%.  Therefore, our community’s votes will carry exceptional weight. 

Our entire school community needs to vote in the June 4th Primary.  In order to vote, you must be registered as either a Democrat or a Republican.  Regardless of how you cast your ballot, politicians will see that our community is engaged.  Only when we increase our voter turnout will our elected officials pass the legislation needed to alleviate the cost of Yeshiva tuition. 

The job of an educator in the Yeshiva day school community is twofold.  First, we try to instill the requisite knowledge for success in our highly competitive world.  Second, we try to act as role models to form their religious, moral, and ethical compasses, ensuring the continuation of Jewish values.

Yavneh is proud to say that we take this responsibility very seriously. 

We ask parents to help our school by registering with a political party and voting in the Primary Election June 4th.  We also ask that parents continue to be positive role models for their children and take action by registering other community members or volunteering to help NJVotes at phone banks or events.  Visitnjvotes.org, call 201-416-7741, or visit the OU office here in Teaneck at 696 Palisade Ave.

Please recognize the importance of this campaign and our responsibility toregister by May 14th and vote in the June 4th Primary.  If we want to effectuate meaningful change our entire school community must vote in June.   Please let me know if you have any questions about this issue and its centrality to the continued strength and growth of our community.  I look forward to working with every one of you on this vital initiative. Thank you for your participation in this school-wide effort.

Thank you

Eric Fremed , Yavneh President-

Moriah Responds to Jewish Week

[Update: Julie Weiner responds: For the record, I interviewed more than one person with information about the layoffs -- not just a single disgruntled teacher. 

In addition, Moriah officials did not respond to all my questions or provide all the information I requested. When they did, I printed it, and when it conflicted with information provided by other sources, I printed and cited both. For example, I printed their enrollment numbers and their claim that the early childhood program is growing by 15 percent.]

Moriah sent out the letter below responding this Jewish Week article.  Personally I didn't think the article was so negative.  I think it framed the layoffs as an unfortunate necessity.

I'm also bothered a bit by the "quotes" of the article in the letter below.  Some of them do not appear in the article as written.  I checked in the print edition as well to make sure the web article wasn't changed in response to this letter.  If you want to summarize what was written and respond to it, fine, but don't put words in quotes when you are not accurately quoting.  For example the article didn't say "22 faculty and staff were laid off representing 20% of the total staff of 115".  It said "nearly 20 percent of the school’s roughly 115 teachers".  It also didn't say ""No severance for its staff", it said "It is not clear if all Moriah’s laid-off teachers will receive severance packages and if the packages are being determined according to a uniform system."