Westchester Day Cuts Pre-school by 25%

You can now send your children to nursery in Westchester for the bargain basement price of $13,500. The LWMO YDS Westchester Day School in Mamaroneck is less than 1/2 hr from the GW bridge (without traffic) according to Google Maps.  I put up a link on the right to their tuition schedule.  Before you laugh at how outrageous the fees are, keep in mind that they don't have the same "junk fees" so popular in New Jersey.  With the reduction they just announced they are in the same ballpark as our "legacies" I can only suspect that they are lowering it to compete with the forthcoming New Roc Torah Academy the same way BC legacies lowered to compete with He'atid. The text of the letter to the parents can be seen after the Jump. Dear Parents and WDS Family and Friends, Since 2009, Westchester Day School has proudly embraced its role as a community leader through a focused effort to stem the rise of yeshiva tuition, while maintaining and exceeding the highest standards of excellence in Jewish and secular education. Today, we are excited to announce the next phase of our multi-year campaign. For the 2013-14 academic year, we are lowering tuition for Ganon 4’s, Kindergarten, and First Grade to $13,500, a reduction, on average, of nearly 25 percent. Though we have not yet finalized the new rates for Grades 2-8, we expect to announce reductions across all grades, ensuring that every family at WDS will benefit from the new tuition structure. This is not the end of our campaign. We remain fully committed to our program of reducing the tuition burden on WDS families. WDS leadership firmly believes that lower tuition rates for the early grades simultaneously provides necessary relief to our current parent body while attracting new families to WDS. We will present further details of the new tuition rates to prospective parents at the WDS Open House on Sunday, October 28th. Because effective planning is essential to fiscal responsibility, we will be offering this tuition reduction to those families who commit to WDS by December 31st. Our primary commitment remains to delivering the highest standards of excellence in education, something our parents and students have come to expect. In pursuit of this mission, we will continue to introduce new educational initiatives and programming in areas such as science, art and music, and innovative pilot programs further integrating technology into the classroom. It is essential to note that we do not expect to reduce any programming in order to implement the lowered tuition structure. It is WDS’s financial strength that uniquely positions us to launch this community-minded initiative. Between our prudent cost-cutting efforts over the past three years, the growth of our immensely popular summer program, and the success of our expanded fundraising efforts, we are confident that we can implement this strategy on a sustainable basis. We strongly believe that the combination of educational excellence, outstanding faculty, community leadership, and our unique and beautiful campus will empower our next Head of School to propel Westchester Day School into the future. These are exciting times to be part of the WDS family, and we look forward to partnering with you as together we build upon our proud 64-year history. Shabbat Shalom, Dan Kosowsky David Goldschmidt President Chairman