By Morris Malakoff , JTNews Correspondent
Correction: According to SJCS officials, the Avi Chai Foundation provided a $1 million interest-free loan, guaranteed by the Samis Foundation. In addition, once the campaigns are complete, SJCS will hold a mortgage, and not own the building free and clear, as was stated in the article. JTNews regrets the errors.
The Seattle Jewish Community School has existed for 18 years. But its existence was organizational, conceptual and ethereal. It made its way using rented spaces that sometimes required packing up the trappings of a classroom each afternoon to make way for another tenant of the space it was using.
Just over two years ago, SJCS landed in an ideal space — albeit again rented — owned by a Christian organization in North Seattle. It had classrooms and play areas and felt like a real school, not a collection of rooms in a basement or auxiliary structure.
SJCS was comfortable in the facility but needed room to grow. When the building became available for purchase, the school exercised the right of first refusal it had written into its rental contract, and negotiated a purchase price of just over $5 million.
On October 24, when the deal closed, SJCS finally got a permanent home. Its 90 students along with faculty, staff and the greater community finally had a place they could identify as their school.
The most noticeable and immediate change was access to the top floor of the three-story building. Prior to the sale, that area had been off limits to SJCS.
“We grew our space by almost 40 percent overnight,” said Deborah Frockt, the school’s director of admissions and marketing. “We added some critical facilities as well.”
That third floor comes with purpose-built science labs, complete with storage, countertops and sinks that would easily serve a high school or university class.
“Our science specialists were ecstatic and could hardly wait to begin putting the rooms to use,” she said.
That extra space is in addition to the classrooms, kitchen and gymnasium that the school already was using.
“We made a few small changes, put down a little paint and the like, just like any renter,” said Frockt. “But now we own it and can make it a place that truly fits our needs.”
The building has an elevator as well, though Frockt was not sure that it meets all of the requirements that define accessibility for the disabled.
In addition to the classroom building, the deal includes some outdoor space that will eventually be developed into a play area for students, as well as a small house that SJCS will likely use as either office space for its own operations or as a rental for use by another non-profit agency.
Currently, SJCS does make its gymnasium, which is equipped with a stage and a carpeted floor, available for events such as B’nai Mitzvah. A kosher kitchen is also on the premises.
Frockt said the “new” building will allow SJCS to facilitate the growth demand the school is experiencing.
“We are seeing continued growth at the kindergarten level that we would have likely not been able to accommodate without the extra space,” she said.
To purchase the building, SJCS raised $3 million in a quiet first phase of a building campaign. The money came, for the most part, from a coalition of donors that includes the Avi Chai Foundation, a national foundation dedicated to providing for Jewish education; the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle; the Samis Foundation, and early leadership donors in the community.
A second-phase campaign is now underway to raise the last $2.2 million dollars to pay off the mortgage and give SJCS free and clear ownership.
Though SJCS had occupied most of the building for the past two school years, the sense of pride of ownership was evident the day the school took possession of the building and was able to call it its own.
“We had a latte truck come one day and the students and parents celebrated like it was champagne,” said Debra J.G. Butler, head of school and the founding principal. “Parents assisted with moving furniture and supplies one day as well. The sense of community and pride of ownership was evident.”