By Donna Gordon Blankinship, Editor, JTNews
Volunteers and staff of the Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle jokingly call their new preschool and childcare program the “seat of our pants preschool.”
The name reflects the speed at which they turned disappointing news from the Stroum Jewish Community Center — that the JCC would be shutting down its Bellevue preschool at the end of the school year — into plans for a one-year trial of a JDS preschool. The new school, which will actually be called the Gan K’tan Preschool, will be in the same portable building, which the JCC has offered rent-free, and will have some of the same teachers.
Whether it comes along with some of the same problems that caused the JCC to close both its Bellevue satellite and the JCC preschool at the Seattle Hebrew Academy is yet to be seen.
The JCC board of directors voted May 13 to close the two preschools because they have been operating consistently at a deficit. They cited the current economic downturn and low preschool enrollment for the upcoming school year, and cited the need to consider the JCC’s fiscal health in making the decision that it could no longer support the satellite programs.
“While we obviously would prefer not to do this, it is in the best long-term interests of the ‘J’ and the community for us to address our financial issues head-on,” said JCC President Paul Etsekson. “Once we’re on solid financial footing, new opportunities will be possible. The JCC will make every effort to accommodate families with whatever space we have available.”
Families with children in the programs will be given priority for enrollment in the JCC’s Early Childhood Services programs at the Mercer Island and Northend facilities. The JDS has already decided to run its own program in Bellevue, and SHA is in the process of raising money to support continuing such a program at its school.
“I’m really proud of our board and staff for pulling together with 24 hours’ notice and … on behalf of the community,” said the outgoing JDS president, Alayne Sulkin.
John Zito, acting head of the JDS, said the Jewish Day School wants to continue having a preschool on its campus because it provides a service to parents with kids in both grade school and preschool and it serves as a “feeder school” for future JDS students. Of the 14 families who have pre-registered for preschool on the JDS campus for the 2002–2003 school year, nine of them are connected to the school through other children or JDS staff.
After a week of analyzing the budget and talking to families, the JDS board voted on May 23 to take on this new challenge. “They felt it was something that was beneficial to both the JDS, the Jewish community and the children being served,” Zito said. “We decided to approve it for one year. Then we will use the next year to give us a chance to do a more thorough analysis about whether this is a viable program for the JDS to be involved with in the future. The new head of school, Rabbi Sunshine, is very enthusiastic about it.”
Zito said the parents and staff of JDS chose to see the silver lining in this cloud. “Out of a bad situation for the JCC, it might give us the opportunity to move in a direction we felt we probably needed to go, down the road,” he said.
The situation at the Seattle Hebrew Academy is more unsure for next year. Because the school would have to make up for a significant operating deficit — estimated at $75,000 a year by the JCC — the decision to take over the school is a difficult one for SHA parents and staff. Rabbi Shmuel Kay, SHA headmaster, said 25 parents who attended an emergency meeting to discuss the issue wrote out checks for $6,000 that night and made phone calls afterward to gather a total of $13,000.
The school hopes to raise about $30,000 to 35,000 before reopening the doors of the preschool next year. Kay said SHA had made an emergency request to the Jewish Federation to help them cover some of the deficit.
About 32 children attend that preschool at SHA. “They love the preschool program and couldn’t say enough how great it is,” Kay said, adding that SHA hopes to keep some of the same teachers if the school for 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds is kept open.
Kay noted that SHA’s budget is already running at a deficit and the school faces an even bigger financial challenge in deciding what to do with the building that was heavily damaged by last year’s earthquake. For the past school school, students have been split between usable areas of the Capitol Hill building, portables on the site and portables in Seward Park in the parking lot of Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath Congregation. The split school program will continue for the 2002–2003 school year, and the Capitol Hill site has been put up for sale.