The Jewish Star reports: Parents of girls who expected to attend Shalhevet High School for Girls in September, as incoming freshmen or returning 10th graders, were stunned on Tuesday to hear that the HAFTR board of trustees, which has been funding Shalhevet, voted overwhelmingly on Monday night to stop doing so. In all likelihood the decision will shut the school down after just one year of operation, though some parents expressed hope that it could be saved.
“Shalhevet is a victim of the tumultuous economic times that many not-for-profits, as well as yeshivot, are experiencing,” said Mark Honigsfeld, the incoming co-president of the Hebrew Academy of The Five Towns and Rockaway.
Shalhevet has been operating at a deficit “like any start-up school,” Honigsfeld said. Shalhevet was created to complement the all-boys Rambam Mesivta, which together with HAFTR, is operated under the banner of Machon HaTorah.
“HAFTR brought real estate and finances to the cooperative agreement. Rambam brought educational leadership,” explained Yaron Kornblum, the other incoming co-president. Rabbi Yotav Eliach and Rabbi Zev Friedman of Rambam lead the various principals and administrators of the Machon. “It was HAFTR’s responsibility to fundraise and pay the deficit of the startup,” Kornblum said.
“HAFTR’s decision was a unilateral decision, made over our forceful objections,” Rabbi Friedman told The Jewish Star. “We believe it was unnecessary and unfortunate. It was very painful.” Shalhevet parents are searching for ways maintain the school he said, but, “Right now my focus is making sure these wonderful girls have a home for next year.”
“We have a fiduciary responsibility to our parents, especially in these times — we have a lot more people out of work, asking for tuition assistance — to use our resources to help people within the HAFTR family,” Kornblum said. The fact that few HAFTR eighth graders chose to attend Shalhevet apparently factored into the decision.
HAFTR will continue to fund the Machon, the co-presidents said, and through that, Rambam. They declined to comment about what they termed “ongoing negotiations” but stressed that further changes to the Machon HaTorah relationship at this time would be for Rambam to decide.
“I’m devastated and I’m hoping that we’ll be able to muster the parents together to continue in an independent form,” said the mother of an incoming 10th grader. She didn’t want to be named, citing concerns about placing her daughter in another school, if need be. “I personally hope that we can somehow make it continue.”
“It’s an exceptional school. She took Arabic. She can now read and write Arabic after one year. She took advanced math. The Ivrit was excellent. The Limudei Kodesh was excellent. College bowl, debate team. It is an excellent school.”
Robbie Zeitz, the father of an incoming freshman, who was apprised of the decision this afternoon called it “unconscionable.”
His daughter, an eighth grader at Shulamith School for Girls in Brooklyn, went through “trauma and turmoil” there this year. Shulamith will not have a ninth grade in September. “We found Shalhevet and knowing it was part of Machon HaTorah, we felt secure and reassured,” he said. “40 girls were set to go and now, without warning and with less than two months until school starts, their future and their security has been pulled right out from under them by an unconscionable act.”
“We recognize the extreme issue as far as placement,” Honigsfeld said. “We are mitigating that by offering seats in our high school at the same economic terms.” HAFTR’s tuition is significantly higher. “Alternatively, administrators from both Rambam and HAFTR will assist getting these students placed in other all-girls yeshivot in the metropolitan area,” he said, and “any advance payments of tuition will be fully refunded, one hundred percent.”
“We already have at least one prospective child who has contacted us,” about attending HAFTR High School, said Ruben Maron, the executive director. “We have at least one who is registering, we’ve had other inquiries.”
Shalhevet “was a great concept but bad timing,” Kornblum said.
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
17 Responses
Welcome to the Depression. I’m sure there will be many more schools folding.
The school apparently was trying to do a good job educationally, but the times call for keeping costs down.
Good school with a spectacular year of learning, activities and ehrlichkeit. Sorry to hear this news.
Do hope that the area schools will open their doors to absorb these wonderful young ladies into their programs without preconditions?
How sad. Now is the time for us to build up education, especially with all the dreadful temptations our children are exposed to today from the secular world that does not recognize G-d.
There must be some solution to this problem.
Sure there’s a solution… it’s called $$$$$$$.
If you want to cough up enough to cover the school’s deficit, I’m sure they’ll be happy to stay open.
#4- the solution is to cut expenses — no school should ever have a warm lunch (brown bag ). To keep costs down, teachers and students should be prohibited for wearing expensive clothes. No extra curricular activities that cost money out of pockets. If they want overnights, form a scout troop and sleep in tents. Study on schools were run in Eastern Europe 70 years ago. Frugality is good (even if it wasn’t recommended by Hazal).
More HAFTR people mixing in and throwing out the baby with the bath water. Not only do they completely undermine the roshei yeshivot, they spin it so that they appear right. The incoming presidency are pompous blowhards who care not about the word and agreements given and made.
They too will run HAFTr into the ground and be begging for somoene capable to run it five years from now – AGAIN.
The HAFTR parents just swallow it. The HAFTR name should be mud.
Very depressing for what is lost:
The inherent Tznius(t) of an all girls school and a moderate Hashkafah (philosophy / outlook)
just out of curiosity, what does what people wear have to do with the budget of a school? its not as if the school pays for the clothes, or they need to buy more expensive desks and seats because of the expensive clothing.
Don’t give up! there is a chance the school will renew on its own. they are in the process of trying there hardest to do so. the faculty including rabbi Friedman is as devastated as we are and believe it or not, the news came upon them as it did to us- in surprise and shock!but yet they still did not give up!
There is a solution to this sad event….return to Shulamith! Shulamith Board of Directors and their leader Zwik have always stated incorrectly that there are not enough modern orthodox children in Brooklyn to fill up the school. Well, guess what, there are 15 girls without a school for next year! This is proof that Shulamith is very much needed in Brooklyn….much more than in L.I.! So Zwik and gang….. move aside, leave Shulamith to continue ‘growing’ in Brooklyn under new management within the existing building or in a new modern location purchased with “half” the proceeds from the sale of the building….!!!! For once, lets do the right thing for our children!!!!!
This article tells only a minimal part of the story. Why did the HAFTR board make so unusual an agreement with Rabbi Friedman? Why did they agree to underwrite a new school, let alone one with a hashkofa that did not really correspond to the HAFTR community’s? In the past three years, HAFTR families have suffered many negative impacts of this merger, with programs and faculty members eliminted, and with discipline and structure declining dramatically? It is very unfortunate that the small number of students from Shalhevet now need to find a placement, but the repercussions of this irresponsible decision are far broader for the community.
Why did the HAFTR board agree to underwrite a new school, one which does not correspond to its own clientele’s hashkofa? The repercussions of this merger far exceed those affecting the fifteen girls at Shalhevet. All HAFTR families and a large number of faculty members have lost programs
and jobs. It is very unfortunate that the nascent Shalhevet school has to close, but the big picture is one of a strange financial decision made with no transparency. HAFTR families should be irate that their declining school has been supporting a separate institution that was no viable.
12-
a few errors
“affecting the fifteen girls at Shalhevet”
Affecting the 56 girls at Shalhevet to be accurate.
“that was no viable”
It had viable – rather then decreasing as you said haftr is it was increasing by 200%.
There were 15 students at Shalhevet last year. Although more had enrolled for this year (I believe 56 is a high estimate), they had never actually been students there. They are in the difficult position now of finding another placement, but their relationship to the school was in the future. Only 15 girls actually have to leave a school they have attended for one year, and that is unfortunate.
Yes, the increase was larger than HAFTR’s decrease. If the total enrollment at a school is 15 students, the percentage of growth should be quite high. This is not to negate the difficulties of this small group, but to emphasize that HAFTR, a large school with a long history, has been affected very negatively by the merger.
It was YOUR Board that made this decision, and just as the popularity and reputation of this new school grew enormous, it was cut down during the summer! This couldn’t have been the only solution they were able to come up with to solve the financial problem. Just the easiest. You minimize the issues these girls have to deal with and say it’s really just a problem for 15 girls and that the freshman haven’t been there yet. A lot of these girls are away for the summer.NOW they have to start searching for a school? In July??!! Don’t minimize that – it’s a HUGE problem, not just for 15 girls, but for the additional 40 freshmen as well.
And why is the hashkofa so different? Just because it’s not co-ed?
Believe me, if you are worried about the big picture, this decision did NOT win HAFTR any brownie points with the Jewish community at large.
first of all there were 16 freshman!
2nd- “pushing people down to bring you up is worth nothing” and for people to be proud of ruining a perfectly good school to be selfish is beyond disgusting!and if so telling them in july!!!???is that a joke!?
And guess what you were all wrong!! the school is open to stay!!!