Facing declining enrollment, Schechter Manhattan to shutter at end of school year

(New York Jewish Week) — Schechter Manhattan, a Conservative Jewish elementary and center college on Manhattan’s Higher West Facet, will shut on the finish of the varsity yr.

The college is framing the closure, which it introduced in a video chat with dad and mom on Tuesday night and in a subsequent e mail, as a collaboration with Rodeph Sholom College, a close-by Reform Jewish college that’s affiliated with a synagogue of the identical title. Schechter is encouraging its 63 college students, in grades Okay-8, to enroll at Rodeph Sholom, which will even be hiring Schechter’s head of faculty and one other senior administrator to guide a brand new Judaic research program.

“Schechter Manhattan can be planning and dealing in the direction of becoming a member of forces with Rodeph Sholom College as of July 1, 2024, thereby ceasing operations as an unbiased entity on June 30, 2024,” learn Tuesday evening’s e mail from the trustees of the varsity, which was based in 1994 and moved in 2011 to a brand new growth on a centesimal Road and Columbus Avenue.

Schechter Manhattan’s closure signifies that just one college with roots within the Conservative motion — the Solomon Schechter College of Queens, which identifies as a “neighborhood” college — stays within the 5 boroughs. Schechter’s management attributed the closure to declining enrollment at colleges all through New York Metropolis, in addition to a value per pupil that has turn out to be untenable as the varsity averages seven college students per grade.

“Demographic change, social developments and shifting mother or father priorities are affecting all method of personal colleges, together with Jewish day colleges,” the e-mail learn. “Furthermore, in a post-denominational world, boundaries between Conservative, Reform, non-denominational and interfaith communities now not serve our shared need to supply a vibrant, sustainable, and high-quality Jewish training to the subsequent technology of Jewish leaders and lay public.”

The college additionally acknowledged that the title “Schechter,” as soon as signifying a significant community of egalitarian Jewish day colleges, had turn out to be a hindrance to enrollment. On a Steadily-Requested-Questions web page, the varsity wrote, “the Schechter model has skilled challenges that didn’t make sense to hold over to the brand new college.”

Underneath the phrases of the partnership, Rodeph Sholom is working to recruit at the very least 28 Schechter college students, or practically half of Schechter’s pupil physique, by Dec. 1. Those that enroll by that date will get a variety of perks, together with paying their present Schechter tuition for the subsequent two years and solely average will increase within the following three years.

That’s an enormous deal, as a result of the 2 colleges’ tuition charges are considerably completely different. Schechter has marketed a sliding scale for tuition based mostly on earnings degree, with funds working wherever from $10,000 to $45,750 per pupil. Rodeph Sholom additionally presents tuition help, however its charges go a lot larger, as much as a most of greater than $63,000 per pupil for its oldest grades — one of many highest Jewish day college tuition charges within the nation. Philanthropic assist is enabling the schooling advantages for Schechter Manhattan dad and mom, in response to the FAQ web page.

The Dec. 1 deadline is high-stakes: If the 28-student threshold shouldn’t be met by then, the deal is off, and all college students must undergo Rodeph Sholom’s common admission course of — and pay its common tuition.

In both case, in response to the FAQ, some aspect of Schechter’s program can be integrated into Rodeph Sholom. Chris Aguero, at the moment Schechter’s head of faculty, will lead the brand new Superior Judaics and Hebrew Language Program together with Shira Jacobson, at the moment Schechter’s assistant head of faculty. The FAQ web page stated the brand new Judaics program would provide “a degree of creativity and rigor commensurate with the Judaics and Hebrew language choices at the moment supplied at Schechter Manhattan.”

As well as, Rodeph Sholom will soak up three Schechter board members. The FAQ web page stated different Schechter college “will even be invited to show” at Rodeph Sholom, although it didn’t present additional particulars.

“Change is rarely straightforward,” the e-mail stated. “This resolution wasn’t taken frivolously however was made with the way forward for our college students and the energy of Jewish training at coronary heart. We cherish the reminiscences, experiences, and values we’ve shared as Schechter Manhattan, and we’re excited in regards to the new journey with Rodeph Sholom College.”

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The closure shouldn’t be the primary for a Schechter college within the space. The Solomon Schechter Excessive College of Manhattan merged with a New Jersey Schechter college in 2006 and closed down completely the next yr. A Lengthy Island Schechter college closed the subsequent yr, in 2008.

In the meantime, different small Jewish colleges throughout the area have additionally struggled: Brooklyn’s Lamplighters Yeshiva, a decade-old Montessori college within the Chabad custom, closed in 2020, and the Thought College, a Fashionable Orthodox highschool in New Jersey, closed in June.