{"id":27990,"date":"2018-03-02T03:49:11","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T11:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=27990"},"modified":"2018-03-01T22:14:42","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T06:14:42","slug":"a-decade-at-kdhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/03\/02\/a-decade-at-kdhs\/","title":{"rendered":"A decade at KDHS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russ Klein recently marked his 10th year as head of school at King David High School. (photo by Pat Johnson)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Russ Klein resisted becoming King David High School\u2019s head of school. Ten years ago, he was a vice-principal in the Vancouver school district, an 18-year veteran of the public system. One of his colleagues \u2013 Ben Lubinizki, a teacher at Prince of Wales, where Klein was VP \u2013 was a King David parent and on the search committee for a new head of school.<\/p>\n

Klein was on track to become a principal in Vancouver and, besides, after attending Vancouver Talmud Torah, becoming bar mitzvah at Beth Israel and volunteering on kibbutzim as a young adult, he hadn\u2019t had much to do with the Jewish community. But Lubinizki was persistent and encouraged Klein to just drop by the school and check it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw what things were like,\u201d Klein recalled. \u201cI saw the potential. I also saw lots of things that I thought they needed a little bit of guidance on at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

It turned out that the Vancouver School Board thought a time at King David could be a good experience for Klein before he became a principal, so offered him a two-year leave of absence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was going to be a temporary position,\u201d he said. He is now celebrating his 10th year at the school and, as he reflects on the past decade, he says the move not only altered his career path, it changed his life.<\/p>\n

A year into the two-year \u201ctemporary\u201d gig, the VSB called with a principalship for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to think hard about it because, in a little over a year, I had quite fallen in love with this particular place,\u201d he told the Independent<\/em> during an interview in his office at King David. \u201cI loved everything about it, from its size to the people I was working with, to the mission that it had.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, while job security in the public system is assured, he said, \u201cIn the private system you don\u2019t have any.\u201d<\/p>\n

The King David board offered him a 10-and-a-half year contract and Klein now hopes to retire \u2013 eventually \u2013 from a role he loves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s worked out quite well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In May, at a major celebration, KDHS will celebrate 13 years \u2013 its bar mitzvah year \u2013 in the current purpose-built building. The school\u2019s history dates back to 1986, when it was founded as Maimonides High School. It was called Vancouver Jewish High School in 2000\/01, then Vancouver Talmud Torah High School until 2004, when it was renamed King David. It has always been a Grade 8 to 12 school.<\/p>\n

As head of school for a decade, Klein has seen plenty of change.<\/p>\n

Almost all Grade 8 students now travel to Israel on an 11-day experience, spending most of the time in the Galilee, Vancouver\u2019s partnership region. Some of the kids in Har Vagai school \u2013 King David\u2019s partner school there \u2013 live on Kibbutz Shamir, where Klein volunteered a couple of decades ago. In Grade 9, the Israeli students come to Vancouver.<\/p>\n

In recent years, KDHS has changed its Grade 9 trip, which used to go to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., to an alternative trip to Los Angeles, where students visit the Museum of Tolerance and the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. The time difference \u2013 and the need to change planes \u2013 made the Washington trip difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we could get more out of the trip,\u201d said Klein. \u201cL.A. is a much shorter, easier [trip], it\u2019s less expensive. But it added another feature, which is that we have a shomer Shabbat weekend in Los Angeles.\u201d (The trip didn\u2019t happen this year as they are moving it to Grade 10.)<\/p>\n

A group of King David students are also going to Guatemala to volunteer in a community where women and children from disadvantaged and often abusive backgrounds access support and skills.<\/p>\n

In all these offerings, financial ability is never a factor in participation, Klein said.<\/p>\n

In the classrooms, change also has been constant. New options have been added to electives, and the school has added advanced math and science programs as well as a Grade 10 outdoor experience program. King David students take all the core subjects public school students do, plus Judaics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a typical Vancouver high school, most students will enrol in eight classes,\u201d Klein explained. KDHS students take two more courses in various aspects of Jewish studies, including (in most cases) Hebrew language, Jewish history and \u201cwhat we would call Jewish values: ethics, Torah, what does it mean to be Jewish?\u201d<\/p>\n

On top of an intense academic load, Klein said, \u201cOur participation in athletics is outrageously high for a school of our size. Probably 70% of our kids are on one athletic team or another \u2013 or more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Challenges remain, Klein acknowledged. The school has pretty much met its student capacity and, while expansion seems unlikely in the near future, the redevelopment of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, a few steps west of the school, could present opportunities for a dedicated gym and shared use of space for classes, drama and music performances.<\/p>\n

The changes in Klein\u2019s career have been accompanied by changes in his personal life.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a person who didn\u2019t have community, coming to a community that is so kind and caring has been absolutely amazing. It has been the best thing that could have happened from my point of view,\u201d he said. \u201cThis has given meaning to my life, aside from the fact that, as a divorced person, I now have a very committed relationship with a former King David parent [Deborah Youngson] who is very traditional herself, which has brought more Jewish meaning to my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another change is also evident. He\u2019s grown what he jokingly calls \u201cthe rabbinical beard,\u201d which he says leads people to assume he is very wise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do have a good chuckle every time I get an email that says \u2018Dear Rabbi Russ.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russ Klein recently marked his 10th year as head of school at King David High School. (photo by Pat Johnson) Russ Klein resisted becoming King David High School\u2019s head of school. Ten years ago, he was a vice-principal in the Vancouver school district, an 18-year veteran of the public system. One of his colleagues \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3076,1559,1047,7807],"class_list":["post-27990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-education","tag-kdhs","tag-king-david-high-school","tag-russ-klein"],"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\/27990","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=27990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}