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Y E S H I VAT R A M B A M EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER | ELEMENTARY SCHOOL GIRLS MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL | BOYS MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL
July 1, 2010 Dear Yeshivat Rambam Parents, After many weeks of hard work and negotiation by our board and professional leadership, we are delighted to share a number of positive developments at Yeshivat Rambam. These developments enhance the success of Rambam and ensure that we continue our critical mission of educating the next generations of Jewish leaders. Here are the key points of these developments, with further details below: 1. We are selling our building to Bnos Yisroel and buying their building, the former Beth Jacob Synagogue, located across the street from the JCC. 2. We have chosen new lay leadership headed by our new Board President, Abba Poliakoff. 3. We have restructured the Middle & High School administration to better accommodate our physical configuration. 4. As a result of this restructuring, Dr. Schwartz is stepping down as Principal. Please join us for an important community meeting to discuss these and other matters Thursday, July 8, at 8:00 PM at our main campus.
New Building As explained in a previous communication, the building at 6300 Park Heights Avenue has ceased to fulfill our needs. In addition, the weight of old debts was preventing our rebound from the difficulties of our recent past. We therefore signed an agreement this week to sell our building to Bnos Yisroel, and to acquire their building in return. That building, at 5713 Park Heights Avenue, is across the street from our Boys Middle & High School in the Park Heights JCC, close enough for faculty and staff to cross between locations with ease. In addition, the sale of our building will allow us to pay off substantial debt and will make us more financially agile moving forward. We will remain at 6300 Park Heights for the 2010-2011 school year. Next summer, we will remodel the new building to prepare for occupancy, using funds made available through this transaction. The building already contains more than 25 classrooms, a large shul/auditorium, a multi-purpose room, a cafeteria, and outdoor spaces. Our plans are in the earliest stages, but we are excited about the move and have begun exploring appropriate modifications to the building. National Blue Ribbon School
New Lay Leadership We are similarly pleased to announce new lay leadership of our school. We have asked Abba Poliakoff to serve as our President, and are in the process of filling out the Board of Directors. Abba will serve as the school’s chief lay leader, working closely with me and other professional leadership to advance our mission and secure Rambam’s future. He comes to us as a former 6300 Park Heights Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21215: Early Childhood · Elementary School · Girls Middle & High School 5700 Park Heights Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21215: Boys Middle & High School T: 410-358-6091 | F: 410-358-4229 | WWW.YRAMBAM.ORG |
[email protected]
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Y E S H I VAT R A M B A M EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER | ELEMENTARY SCHOOL GIRLS MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL | BOYS MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL
Rambam parent who has served the Baltimore community in many ways: as a business lawyer and Chairman of the Securities Law Department of Gordon Feinblatt, LLC; as President of the Jewish Arbitration and Mediation Board of Baltimore; as Chairman of the Maryland Israel Development Center; as a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Baltimore Jewish Council; and as member of the Board of Directors of The Associated. Our new Board will feature an active committee structure. The committees will cover key aspects of operation, including: development (Ed Hoffman, chair), academics (Debra Drang, chair), finance and administration (Meyer Shields, chair), communications and marketing (Ellie Kagan, chair), and governance (Steven Fleisher, chair). Members of the Executive Board will include the committee chairs and other active parents. In addition, all members of our Board of Directors will serve on at least one committee each. We are looking to enfranchise the parent body in building the school’s future. Please keep this in mind when you meet with us next Thursday.
Hakarat Hatov to our Outgoing Board We are grateful to our outgoing officers and directors for their tremendous help and support. Without their determination, ideas, and of course hard work, Yeshivat Rambam would surely not exist today. In particular, we thank Barry Nabozny, outgoing President, and Dr. David Sidransky, outgoing Chairman, for their remarkable service. Barry stepped in two years ago, helping to bridge the successful transition to new leadership. In fact he helped find and recruit some of our top talent while serving as a lay-Executive Director. While he is happy to stand down from that all-consuming level of involvement on behalf of the school, we will miss Barry’s unwavering commitment. David raised many millions of dollars for Yeshivat Rambam during his 10 years on the Executive Board, an incredible feat for which we will always be grateful; and he served the Rambam community in ways that went beyond fundraising. We bid David and his family a tzetchem l’shalom, wishing them happiness and success in Israel. Happily, David will continue to serve on our Board of Directors and be active in fundraising and development.
Middle & High School Administrative Restructuring We are grateful to our administration for its dedication and hard work over the past year. This was a learning experience for new and old administration alike, as we explored the best ways to educate students on two campuses while maintaining the highest levels of academic and Torah learning. The experience taught us the difficulties of having administrative personnel on-site for half the time in either location. After much serious thought, we decided to restructure the Middle & High
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Y E S H I VAT R A M B A M EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER | ELEMENTARY SCHOOL GIRLS MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL | BOYS MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOL
School leadership. We are happy to announce the 2010-2011 Yeshivat Rambam Senior Educational Administration as follows: Boys Middle & High School Principal—Rabbi Yakov Majeski Girls Middle & High School Principal—Mrs. Shira Tuchman Elementary School Principal—Rabbi Shmuel Feld ECC Director—Mrs. Rachel Rotenberg
Dr. Schwartz As a result of this restructuring, Dr. Yoel Schwartz is stepping down as Principal of Yeshivat Rambam. Dr. Schwartz came to us twelve months ago, at a time when our school required an impossible combination of warmth and healing on the one hand, and impeccable management of two campuses on the other. During his brief tenure, Dr. Schwartz helped Yeshivat Rambam take great strides in the area of educational success for all students. He created proactive plans to support our students’ different learning styles and found positive ways to deal with our children, always building them up even in the course of necessary discipline. We will miss his sincerity and sensitivity and wish him well in his future endeavors. I hope to see you at next week’s meeting. Our new President and I look forward to sharing our plans and dreams for a wonderful future.
Sincerely yours,
Rabbi Hershel Lutch Executive Director
