Religious School Visioning

March 15, 2006

Dear CBH Members:

The Religious School Committee created a Visioning Group in order to address the question of what will happen to the structure of Religious School (RS) once we move into our own space (which we now understand may not be until the 2007-2008 school year). Our task was to consider the various options and fully flesh them out - not to select which option would be better.

This group of has worked hard to define and analyze the options for the near-term (1-3 years) future of Religious School as well as options for the long-term (beyond 3 years). In doing so, we also felt it important to acknowledge the primary drivers for CBH members when considering these issues. Please note that none of the options presented would become effective until we are in our new building. We engaged in this process beyond the choice of "Saturday v. Sunday RS" because the resolution of that debate does not completely address our issues. The fact is, even once we are in the new building, we face potential space issues in 2008, regardless of whether RS meets on Saturday or Sunday (see chart attached as Appendix A). Thus, in thinking about re-structuring because of the move, it seemed to us to make sense to explore longer-term, more creative options as well as near-term ones. All of the options are presented in the following pages.

The Board has decided that the options should be presented to the congregation as a whole at the Congregational Meeting on May 9. Then, the members would be invited to 1 or 2 additional meetings at which they could ask questions of the RS Committee and provide feedback on the options. Thereafter, a recommendation would be made by the Board and a vote taken of the full congregation.

In closing, I would like to thank all of the members of the Visioning Group for their hard work and commitment.

Thank you,
Liza Kirschenbaum

Near-term (Next Year) Options

• Saturday RS and Shabbat Services
• Sunday RS and Service

Mid-term (Able to Implement the Following School Year) Options

• Maintain Saturday RS but move RS to Sunday just for 7th Grade (mid-term)
• Menu/Credit Model for RS (mid-term)

Long-term (in Addition to Mid-term Options) Options

• RS on both Saturday and Sunday

The Religious School Visioning Document

The full document is available for download. Members, please review the document and come hear a presentation about these options and participate in the discussion. Look for announcements in BetNet. We will, thereafter, have 1 or 2 feedback sessions and then the congregation will vote on recommendations coming from the Board.

Visioning Group

Rabbi Amy Small, Katia Segre Cohen, Jay Weiner, Nancy Hersh, Lisa Adamczyk, Amy Rowland, Bruce Esrig, Andrea Savage, Ari Venezia; with input from Nancy Yacker, Archie Gottesman, and Liz Miller.