{"id":10852,"date":"2015-02-20T00:06:07","date_gmt":"2015-02-20T08:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=10852"},"modified":"2015-02-19T19:01:27","modified_gmt":"2015-02-20T03:01:27","slug":"ottawa-school-closes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2015\/02\/20\/ottawa-school-closes\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa school closes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ottawa Jewish Community School\u2019s\u00a0high school program will be phased out by 2017. (photo from cjnews.com<\/a>)<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A unanimous decision by the Ottawa Jewish Community School\u2019s board of directors will see the city\u2019s only Jewish high school program phased out by 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn extensive examination by OJCS leadership, which included a study by the school\u2019s sustainability committee, has determined that the high school is not financially viable,\u201d Aaron Smith, OJCS board president, said in a Feb. 10 letter to parents about the decision to close the high school. \u201cPut simply, not enough families are choosing to send their children to grades 9 through 12. This has been a challenge in the high school over [its] 20-year existence.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2006, Ottawa\u2019s Jewish elementary school, Hillel Academy, amalgamated with Yitzhak Rabin High School and the new school was renamed OJCS. Despite having both schools under one roof, the high school continued to struggle to sustain itself. Smith said it would require a minimum annual community subsidy of $250,000, on top of regular operating costs, to avoid a deficit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe require a minimum of 50 students to be sustainable given our current cost structure. This year, we have 24 students and, next year, at best, we expect 20 students total enrolled,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

Tuition for the high school program for the coming year is about $14,000. Andrea Freedman, president and chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, said the challenge with the deficit is that it\u2019s ongoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a short-term infusion of cash that is required to save the school. It is an ongoing minimum deficit of $250,000 each and every year. So that means that for every incoming Grade 9 class, to see them through to graduation is $1 million. And there is no obvious source for these funds, despite peoples\u2019 good intentions,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was a decision of the school board to close it, but it is a broader community decision to not provide additional deficit funding for the school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith said OJCS will begin to phase out the high school program next fall. \u201cWe are committed to providing the existing Grade 10 and 11 classes with the ability to finish their high school studies and graduate from OJCS,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The elementary school currently has a student body of about 200.<\/p>\n

David Roytenberg, the father of one OJCS graduate and one current OJCS student, hopes he can galvanize Ottawa\u2019s Jewish community to raise the funds necessary to sustain the high school.<\/p>\n

He started a Facebook group called Supporters of the Ottawa Jewish Community High School<\/a>, and has managed to raise more than $5,000 in just two days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to raise money to reverse the decision. But they\u2019ve presented it as a fait accompli,\u201d Roytenberg said. \u201cObviously, we would have some work to do to increase the enrolment…. There wasn\u2019t really a Grade 9 class this year, which was part of the problem. They had one kid come in this past fall, so that leaves a big hole in the school…. But personally I just find it unthinkable that we would close the high school. It is like the cornerstone of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that there are seven OJCS eighth graders who are signed up for Grade 9 next year, and their parents are now faced with a choice about where to send them.<\/p>\n

Freedman said the decision to close the school is not one that anyone wanted to make. \u201cThe basic challenge is that not enough parents are making the decision to send their child to Jewish day school in general and the high school in particular,\u201d she said, adding that there are about 900 high school-aged Jews in Ottawa, and fewer than two dozen were planning to enrol in the OJCS next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a responsibility to meet the needs not only of the 20 students who are projected to enrol in the school next year, but to the 880 other teens in our community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on why there has been such a significant drop in enrolment from Grade 8 to Grade 9, Freedman said, \u201cI think finances comes into play, but I think it is a priorities question in part, and I think it is a question of socialization. Parents are understandably concerned about sending their child to such a small school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freedman added that although \u201cextraordinarily painful,\u201d it was a decision that had to be made. \u201cWe avoided it for as long as possible but, ultimately for the greater good of the community, it is a difficult decision that had to be made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roytenberg said that he\u2019s joined a task force that was set up at an emotional Feb. 12 community meeting at Ottawa\u2019s JCC about the school\u2019s closing.<\/p>\n

He added that he\u2019ll keep trying to raise money for a \u201crescue fund\u201d to save OJCS.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hopeful that we can raise some significant money and maybe that will help to change their minds,\u201d he said. \u201cOttawa has about 14,000 Jews. We ought to be able to sustain a high school. We ought to be able to raise the money to keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ottawa Jewish Community School\u2019s\u00a0high school program will be phased out by 2017. (photo from cjnews.com) A unanimous decision by the Ottawa Jewish Community School\u2019s board of directors will see the city\u2019s only Jewish high school program phased out by 2017. \u201cAn extensive examination by OJCS leadership, which included a study by the school\u2019s sustainability committee, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3217,1303,1302,3216,3218,3215],"class_list":["post-10852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-aaron-smith","tag-andrea-freedman","tag-jewish-federation-of-ottawa","tag-ojcs","tag-ottawa-jewish-community-high-school","tag-ottawa-jewish-community-school"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}