The Mission vs Admission Challenge in Jewish Day Schools

Rabbi Jim Rogozen

 

Almost every Jewish day school has a Mission Statement. It usually appears on the school’s web page and in marketing materials. It explains what the school is about, its target audience, and the nature and goals of the school. Some of these Mission Statements are very specific about the families they serve and the religious nature of the school, while others are broader in scope, hoping to attract families with a wider range of Jewish practices and beliefs. A school’s religious policies, curriculum, program, and faculty will (or should) reflect what’s contained in the Mission Statement.

A school’s ability to accomplish all the elements contained within its Mission Statement depends on several factors: enough students to constitute each grade of the school, sufficient revenue from tuition and fundraising, a group of qualified teachers and specialists, trained administrators, a facility that supports the school’s program, and the support of the Board and parents.

While finding the best teachers and administrators is rarely easy, having enough students (and tuition revenue) presents the greatest year-to-year challenge for a Jewish day school. The number of students in each grade, and in the school, is important in terms of classroom dynamics and the ability to have extracurricular programs, such as sports teams. A class or school that is too small may encourage students and parents to look for a larger school. 

Unfortunately, having a large student body is not a guarantee of “enough” tuition revenue. In most schools, the amount of expected tuition is reduced due to scholarships or financial aid. If a school has a very large endowment, the interest from those funds can fill in the “lost” tuition given out as scholarships. In most cases, though, Jewish day schools give out a significant number of “unfunded” scholarships, impacting their operating budget, including the ability to pay competitive salaries and benefits, maintain the school’s academic programs, and its facility. In other words, it’s not the number of students, or what a school charges in tuition; it’s what it actually collects in tuition that matters. 

Another challenge, both academic and financial, is that most Jewish day schools admit students who have a variety of special needs. Some of these needs can be addressed in the classroom, but some students will require assistance and instruction from staff members beyond their classroom teachers. Unless schools charge additional fees for these services, the school’s operating budget picks up the tab. In some cases, these needs are known early enough for a school to budget and staff appropriately for them; in other cases, the needs are discovered once the school year has begun or once a student has been in the school for a few years. If a school admits and continues to enroll a child with special needs, they have a professional and moral obligation to adequately meet that child’s needs.

Last, but not least, schools depend on annual fundraising to fill the gap between tuition revenue and program costs. Because a school’s expenses usually grow over time, so does the fundraising goal. Raising funds requires a great deal of work - securing gifts from current donors, finding new donors, and planning one or more fundraising events - and this, too, requires adequate staffing.  An additional challenge is that more and more major donors, rather than giving to “the annual budget” as a whole, have become more insistent on directing their funds to specific programs which, while appreciated, can cause other programming areas to be underfunded. In other words, the “funding gap” may be filled, but some budget areas will be affected.

Every year, Heads of Schools and Board members work to balance all these factors - not just to make ends meet, but to accomplish their mission and thrive. The question is: How much will the challenges to a school’s financial viability change the school’s mission?

When school leaders see that their revenues are not keeping up with program/facility expenses, they consider a variety of strategies, some of which may close the budget gap. They include:

• Reducing the amount of financial aid available to families.
• Accepting large donations for specific programs, even when the annual fund is shrinking.
• Freezing salaries or giving minimal raises to teachers.
• Adding more responsibilities to teachers.
• Encouraging enrollment retention by changing educational programming.
• Changing curriculum (especially Judaic Studies/T’filla).
• Admitting students whose families don’t align with the school’s mission.
• Accepting more special needs students than the school can responsibly serve.
• Retaining students who would be better served in other schools.

All of these decisions are part of the “Mission vs Admission Challenge.”

The strategies listed above may succeed in keeping the doors open, but if they change the nature of the school, programmatically and financially pulling attention away from the school’s core mission, the result will be “mission drift.” After a while, some people will complain that the school “isn’t what it used to be.” While that may be true, it’s important to remember that schools are never really what they “used to be”- and that can be good! Schools should always examine their practices and aim for excellence. And attracting families that previously would not have considered sending their children to a Jewish day school should be seen as an opportunity. On the other hand, if the school drifts too far away from its core mission, it risks losing some of its more mission-aligned families, teachers, and donors, impacting viability.

It's important for all involved in setting the school’s budget, recruiting families, and educating children to be clear and open about the Mission vs Admission Challenge, and to be aligned in what they do and say.

• Board leaders and donors need to be careful about pressuring Heads of Schools to “fill the seats” without understanding what that means for the faculty and the families already in the school. 

• Admission Directors need to be careful about how they sell the school and what they promise. Saying “every child deserves a day school education” is a nice sentiment, but it’s not always realistic. In fact, depending on the circumstances, some children would be better served by being in a different kind of school. 

• Heads of School need to be clear about what the school’s capacity is in terms of meeting every student’s needs and staying true to the school’s mission.

Schools that are “mission-admission” aligned will be strong schools, doing amazing things for kids and families, for years to come.