Yeshiva Sanity: New Assistant Principal Position at Moriah

Friday, August 23, 2013

New Assistant Principal Position at Moriah

Despite a recent drop in admissions at Moriah, a new Assistant Principal for Student Life position has been created, as reported by the Jewish Link. This Assistant Principal will join the other Assistant Principal, two associate principals, 6 Directors and of course the Principal, in the Administration. This does not include office staff or business office. Does this seem excessive to anyone else?

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End Welfare · 605 weeks ago

You can take the school out of legacy, but you can't take the legacy out of school. Thank God for GD and Heatid.

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Bart · 605 weeks ago

Interesting letter in today's Jewish standard.
http://www.jstandard.com/content/item/questioning...

3 replies · active 605 weeks ago

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End Welfare · 605 weeks ago

Bizarre that Hochman would bash Heatid in the manner in which he has done so. What is his agenda in picking this fight? How is it helpful? What are his ties to local legacy schools? Is somebody putting him up to writing these types of letters?

These are all questions we should be asking and he should be answering.

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Bart · 605 weeks ago

Maybe he just believes that He'Atid is a misguided endeavor.
How does He'Atid respond to this part of his letter:

"I also must respond to the writers’ “facts.” To their #2 (“We absolutely do have both enrichment and a resource room”) — I received an unsolicited email from a parent: 'The entire blended/differentiated learning model did not seem to be implemented in pre-K; In our experience, not only weren’t there resources for enrichment or remediation, they were unfamiliar with even the current industry standards for modifications in a regular classroom setting, calling it ‘special treatment’, which they were unable to address. This was also reflected in their grading system, in which behaviorally, students with remediation needs were graded as “not showing respect” for tefillah, teachers, etc. because they couldn’t sit still. Academically, gifted students were not recognized for abilities that exceeded grade-level expectations and they were not given additional exercises or guidance in such areas to build on their strengths beyond what was taught to the entire class'”.

5 replies · active 604 weeks ago

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End Welfare · 605 weeks ago

Please Bart.Stop and think for a moment. Why the hell would a random Heatid parent send Willie an "unsolicited" complaint about Heatid? Who the hell is Willie Hochman? The whole things smells fishy.

2 replies · active 605 weeks ago

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Elephant in the Room · 605 weeks ago

Living in BC is expensive, whether it's the houses, taxes, schools, camps, or lifestyle generally. If you want to have more than 2 kids, and you aren't earning $300K-$400K+, you probably shouldn't move there. No offense. If you think that saving $5K per kids on day school changes the calculus over the long-haul, you're fooling yourself. It's that simple.

Don't blame Moriah or other 'legacy' schools for trying to offer a top quality product, and charging what it costs to do so.

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Yeshiva_Dad 69p · 605 weeks ago

Elephant,

So what's the right neighborhood for an MO family that works in the city pulling in 150K a year whose friends and family are in the NYC metro area?

3 replies · active 605 weeks ago

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End Welfare · 605 weeks ago

"Living in BC is expensive, whether it's the houses, taxes, schools, camps, or lifestyle generally. If you want to have more than 2 kids, and you aren't earning $300K-$400K+, you probably shouldn't move there."

There aren't many places within commuting distance to NYC (where the big boys work....)where you can comfortably live on only $200k.

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reality · 605 weeks ago

i hate to point this out but you can live in BC and make only 150k if you send to public school!!! If we as a community could focus on how to make public school work imagine how much $ we could give to people who need real tzedukkah not those who have cable and iphones and are living way over their means.

2 replies · active 604 weeks ago

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End Welfare · 605 weeks ago

"not buying a home but living in an apartment. houses are very expensive to finance and maintain."

For the record, people have been maligned on this blog and the one that preceded it for suggesting that (GASP) people stay in the apartments by Glatt Express unless and until they can afford BOTH a mortgage and yeshiva tuition.

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Really? · 605 weeks ago

I don't see how anyone can claim that they are going bankrupt from yeshiva tuition if they have purchased a home. don't care if you earn $100k or $250k or $1m. if you can't afford it, you can't afford it.

3 replies · active 605 weeks ago

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He'Atid Fan · 605 weeks ago

Boaz: Can you not read? The point EW was making is that parents who prioritize paying their mortgages over Yeshiva have skewed priorities.

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Shlomo · 605 weeks ago

Just to clarify an earlier posting. TABC all-in is around $24k and Frisch is $28k. I'm amazed that so many younger parents think TABC and Maayanot are only $18k or so. Lrobay because the schools trick you in that they only publish the "tuition" without the registration fee

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Elephant in the Room · 605 weeks ago

Colleges are between $50K-60K. All your ranting on this blog about a $2K-$5K difference for day schools sounds pretty silly.

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The Real Steve · 604 weeks ago

BTW, this "position" was created for an employee of Moriah for 8 years. If anyone of you had actually read the article, you have seen this. This was a promotion, not a new hire.

1 reply · active 604 weeks ago

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Show me the Money · 604 weeks ago

Has He'Atid published financials yet? For all the talk about how their new model is sustainable, it's a bit strange that no one has seen a budget, and we're all left to speculate about how much of their success is due to subsidies from AJE, Avi Chai and others.

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The Real Steve · 604 weeks ago

Well, you have to understand that YD was hand picked by Chump to run this blog. Chump was a rather nasty individual that could only find wrong in the existing schools, and constantly exaggerated and censored posts that were critical of his POV. YD has a child in heated, so of course he is partial to them. OTOH, He's not nearly as bad as Chump.

As far as financials go, I doubt you will ever see them for heatid. If you did, you would realize that they live on massive amounts of charity, as it is clearly impossible to provide a similar product to the existing schools at 2/3 of the price. If and when that charity dwindles, so will heatid.

5 replies · active 604 weeks ago

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tzlilaj · 604 weeks ago

The conversation about public school is never picked up... why not? if a family can't afford to pay their bills then what are there options over the long term??? Just this past Shabbat a shul I overhead the most horrendous conversation/behavior among yeshiva going girls... and their mothers are no better. Why would I want to spend all the money necessary to "educate" (one lives in hope) my daughter among such nastiness and pettiness and vulgarity????

3 replies · active 604 weeks ago

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Facts · 604 weeks ago

5 towns readers: please confirm if the tuition schedule below from halb has decreased from last year due to aje's involvement. It seems the same as its always been. http://www.halbweb.org/web/2013-14/exec/tuitionfe...

1 reply · active 604 weeks ago

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Keep it Real · 604 weeks ago

A point has been raised herein that this was not a new hire but a promotion of someone who had been working at Moriah for 8 years. We still do not know if her existing position will continue to be filled or not, and therefore, Yeshiva Dad may still have a valid point.

1 reply · active 602 weeks ago

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Keep it Real · 604 weeks ago

This new hire by Moriah raises another interesting point that should be looked at. Moriah describes this new administrative position as follows: "Assistant Principal for Student Life is the school leader, who is rooted in core Jewish values and ideals, and uses them to focus on every child’s social, emotional, ethical, and civic development . . . " It sounds to me that Moriah was looking to address a certain need, that perhaps there is a vacuum in our current educational system. The way I read it, perhaps Mr. Distenfeld comments that we are failing when it comes to instilling a love of Yidishkeit in our students was not so off base.! Otherwise, why would Moriah feel a need to create this new position as it is so described.

At the same time, Moriah worked very hard to get one of the Bold Grants to implement the new version of Blended Leardning (not the current version that everyone is claiming they already do) and deservingly was awarded the grant. Interesting! Perhaps, Mr. Distenfeld was also correct when he said that we need to change the way we educate our children. Otherwise, why did Moriah work so hard to win this grant and graciously accept this award to implement a new style of learning and a new curriculum!

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Get Real · 604 weeks ago

Perhaps Mr. Distenfeld is a prophet.

2 replies · active 604 weeks ago

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End Welfare · 604 weeks ago

If you want a handout from the community in the form of a scholarship, then you should allow the leaders of the community or their representatives to inspect your home to make sure everything you wrote on your scholarship application is accurate. Otherwise, the whole thing becomes one big joke like it is now.

1 reply · active 604 weeks ago

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Really? · 604 weeks ago

I believe the word you are looking for is not prophet but rather opportunist. The He'Atid founders have tried to contrive an argument about a new high school beyond lower tuition and it simply doesn't fit the facts. Their own "research" makes no mention of religious observance and certainly can't prove any correlation. Their own boss at AJE was very clear that their efforts are focused on low cost tuition and they were mistaken in bringing up anything else. Unfortunately, He'Atid parents are now being caught in the crossfire as the founder of their school moves on and in doing so causes a lot of bad publicity and public name calling.

1 reply · active 604 weeks ago

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Batya · 604 weeks ago

In my experience, for every person upset at Mr. Distenfeld (and I agree they are almost always tied to a legacy in some official capacity), there are 10 people who think what he's doing is amazing. For the past two decades, our community leaders have heard us cry out in pain. They listened but didn't lift a finger to help us. Out of nowhere comes Mr. Distenfeld who challenges the status quo and actually creates lower cost options for us where parents are extremely happy. A prophet that does not make him. More like a Nachshon who actually did something that everyone else said was impossible.

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Really? · 604 weeks ago

I agree that Gershon has done great things. I'd suggest he could have done them without creating almost all of the drama that he did. There have been many schools that have opened successfully recently. Another high school just opened this year and you hear little to nothing from anyone. You can argue that people are threatened by He'Atid or you can realize that people just don't like the approach taken. I know there are many at He'Atid and even on its board who feel the same.

1 reply · active 604 weeks ago

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Edward · 604 weeks ago

What can possibly be someone's problem with a school that's trying to offer a Jewish education for half the price? How can that cause some of you " bloggers" to get so angry. I don't get it.

Also if you think it's ok to have a situation that one needs to make 300 to 400 k to raise a family in Teaneck than were really headed for disaster.

Give credit where credit is due. The school offers a lower cost option ( that's all it is, an option) for people to educate their kids in a Yeshiva Environment. Options are good!!

And to a family of 3 kids, to potentially save 30k a year on an income of ( yikes) 200k per year, that's quite a bit of money.

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