BOULDERS only Jewish day school plans to close by the end of the 2010-2011 school year because it wont have enough students to operate next fall, members of the Boulder Jewish Day Schools board said.
The board made the decision March 8 and notified parents March 11 so that parents would have enough time to make arrangements for their children for the next school year.
It wasnt a matter of three or four students graduating, said Richard Galdieri, BJDS president, whose two children are enrolled at the school. It was a matter of not getting 10 new students.
Galdieri said that in recent years the school struggled to keep enrollment up.
BJDS currently serves 26 students, but some are only part-time preschool students, said Cynthia London, school administrator.
That number is down from a high of 65 students three years ago, she said.
Daniel W. Bennett, BJDS consultant and former head of CAJE, said many private schools locally and nationally are suffering from lower student enrollments in the poor economy.
In Boulder, the Rocky Mountain School for the Gifted and Talented closed several years ago. The Bridge School also closed, but is rebranding as the Temple Grandin School for children with Aspergers Syndrome and planning to re-open in the fall. Boulders Eastern Sun Academy, a private elementary school, closed in September.
All private schools must fund the gap between what tuition brings in and what the school costs to operate, Bennett said, adding that without enough students per grade that gap becomes insurmountable.
Bennett also said that those schools that need to fundraise more than 20-25% of their budgets are facing a challenge that exceeds most communities capabilities.
In past years, the tuition gap for BJDS ranged from $100,000 to $150,000 annually. If it stayed open next year, the school would have needed to raise more than $200,000 to close the tuition gap, he said.
Thats $10,000 per child, Bennett said. Thats a lot.
More students per grade would have increased revenue without substantially increasing staffing costs which accounts for 80-85% of most schools budgets, Bennett said.
Galdieri said that there is a great sense of community and warmth at BJDS, and that the parents are very sad that their children wont be returning.
There is a wonderful parent community that gets together on weekends, Galdieri said. My son begs me to go to school. These are some of the things you get from small schools.
People have a pre-conceived notion what this school is, he added. And we havent been able to change that to effectively communicate what is great about the school.
THE idea of opening a private Jewish day school in Boulder was first discussed at a bris in a Boulder home about 18 years ago, said Jeffrey Linsky, who attended the event and has been a board member since the school opened in 1994.
Since its inception, BJDS has offered pre-school through fifth-grade classes.
BJDS has always been a community day school, unaffiliated with any congregation or movement and open to all members of the Jewish community.
During its 17 years, the school moved many times. At first it was housed in Bonai Shalom in Boulder and then at Har HaShem, also in Boulder.
About 12 years ago the school rented a building in Lafayette, then moved to the Boulder JCC. until it moved approximately eight years ago to its present location on Lookout Road in Gunbarrel.
Over the years the school also had many directors, including Shoshi Bilavsky, who was the head of school from fall 2004 until spring 2010 and now is the director of the Seattle Jewish Community School.
Linsky said the drop in enrollment at BJDS can be attributed to many factors. Some of the most involved families either moved out of the area or their children eventually aged out of the school.
He said that fewer national Jewish foundations fund private Jewish day schools like BJSC as a result of the Bernie Madoff scandal.
He added that the Allied Jewish Federation and the Rose Community Foundation continue to provide funds to the school, but that the amount is insufficient to keep the school running.
Linsky also said that BJDS owns the building, but borrowed so much money against it that it has no equity. The nonprofit has an agreement with a Boulder developer to have the first right to re-occupy the building.
Our very strong intention is to raise sufficient funds to continue the school till the end of the semester, Linsky said.
Bennett said the parents and board hope there will be another Jewish day school in Boulder in the future.
Its a sad day, he said. Were all pretty heartbroken about it.
Copyright © 2011 by the Intermountain Jewish News
