Hebrew Schools, Policies 0- titlined; Teachers', Parents' Complaints INSURANCE

(Continued from Page I)

Jewish education that will be
in harmony with the chang-
ing needs of our community
and sensitive to the needs of
our children, and those of
their parents." >q2

The administration further
asserts that it does not intend
to remove itself from the
operation of the elementary
schools and there are explan-
ations for the recommended
action to close two branches
and to abandon the second
session in three branches.

There were indications that
a review of these two deci-
sions which have angered
parents and caused further
discord with the teachers are
to be reviewed in the coming
weeks.

The UHS administration's
statement contains these ad-
ditional explanations:

The importance of the
new agreement lies in the
mutual recognition of the
rights vested in the school
board to set performance
standards and to evaluate
performance.

"Now it behooves teachers
and the administration to
work in harmony, to create
an environment in which to-
gether, they can be creative
and innovative in providing
IA'S students with meaning-
ful. inspiring experiences in
Jewish learning and living,
with a program designed to
meet individual difference's in
aptitudes and Interests.

'"I'he UlIS has nut mitered
a deterioration in the quality
and effectiveness of its fir
gram. Indeed. the 1,i:in', the
f acuity and the
lion have. in . ,- the past few
yl`,11,. striven to raise stand-
ard; and improve the effee
tivcriess of the 1115 curricu-
!urn.

"The positions of the Board
during the negotiations and
its subsequent decisions in a
number of areas were all de•
ST1!.ned to improve the educa-
tional programs of the 11115.

'The UHS teaching staff
andadministration devoted
all of the past year to re eval-
outing the objectives and the
curriculum of the school. In-
e changes were made.
both in the methodology used
for teaching language and the
other subject matter areas,
and in the materials

"To implement these and
other premises, a new class
structure and curricular pro.
grams were developed.

"The new methodology of
teaching Hebrew language
called lryad Halashon was
instituted. The development
of a SAW in! Studies Progra iii
different from the traditional
method of teaching Jewish
Ilistory was begun. New ma-r
terials and a new approach
to the teaching of Torah were
developed

Joint programs were de-
veloped with other communal
agencies in order to broaden
the dimensions of the child's
Jewish experience •

"The hoard of the tills
Consists of a broad cross-
section of the community
representing different back-
grounds and points of view;
. haring a broad perspective
cf the over-all problems and
gds of the community;
ela• of them representing
•
cues, :her communal •
agencies ... • parents of stn.
dents with
he School
tem. pi eseti;
id past. ThIs
board had to t rapple with a

number of complex prob- during the second session handwritten, presented to
lems and situations. Among and did not function as well. The Jewish News, the teach-
these were the decisions to . Having all of the children ers' union spokesmen, while
close the Borman School in come at the same time would welcoming the reopening of
Detroit and the Cohn School permit the scheduling of the schools as a blessing for
jp Livonia. A careful study parallel classes so that our the children, retained the
by a special com- objectives in providing a pro- view that the experienced
mittee appointed for that gram tailored to the indi- episode is "inexcusable and
purpose which took testi- vidual needs of each child unforgivable." They main-
tain that several issues re-
mony and engaged in fact- would become possible.
main "contractually unre-
finding. The board, after con-
"This in no way diminishes
sidering the closing of these the number of hours a child solved," adding: "We hope
that
our faith in the moral
schools at two meetings, attends per week. Every
came to the reluctant con- child in the school will still fiber and pledges of our com-
clusion that these two schools continue to attend six hours munal leaders will prove
justifiable."
could not continue to function per week.
as educationally and fiscally
"We would be misleading
"Hopefully, the terms of
viable schools. The enroll-
the public," the teachers'
ment projection for the fall the new contract will permit statement declares, "were
of 1973 of 60-70 students led the harmonious pooling of we to pretend that the
the board to conclude that teacher and administrative causes which brought about
the quality of instruction resources that is required. the recent tragic crisis is
would not be up to the stan- The resources are there to now over." They ask for
dard expected of the UHS. be used by the Jewish edu- "accountability" of adminis-
Children could not he group- cational system profitably. trators.
ed in parallel classes in ac- In the main, the UHS has a
Two supplementary state-
cordance with their apti- devoted and capable teach-
ments appended to the sign-
tudes, needs and interests. ing and supervisory staff.
Th
ed contract have a serious
ey
are
able
to
provide
the
In deciding to close these two
hranches. the board in no progressive, creative, and in- bearing on the controversial
novative approach to Jewish i s sues. One declares that the
way felt that it was abandon-
education reouired to meet decisions of the L'HS board
ing these communities. Most
the needs of our contem- to close two branches and to
of the children attending
these schools are presently porary youth. eliminate the second session
t gr•evable by e.th
bused. It is planned to
"Apparently. the oualita- the association or by a
transfer these children to tive achievements of the He- teacher," and the other as-
the nearest large branch : brew Schools over the Past
sortsthat ' - "recog-
available to them with little
additional bussing time. But few years have not been nizes a moral commitment
these students would have communicated as thoroughly to mitigate the economic im-
and as frequently as they pact upon the 20-hour teach-'
available to them the educa- , should
he to parents and to ors of the closing of the
tional opportunities and facil-
Jewish community. One schools and the elimination
ities of a large school where the
of the problems to which the of the
d . . • . "
provisions for individual school must now address it-
,
differences can he made.
The contract provides for
self is to devise ways and
salary increases of 5 per
"This decision was wrong- means of keeping parents in-
c
Iv interpreted as meaning formed of issue s. problems.ent the first year and nom-
o
f
vie
final
additional increases for
that the UHS intended to and achievements
the following two years to
phase out and close its ele- l'HS. We shall seek to in-
mentary schools in the- near creme parent particination mitigate the losses in income
during the closing of the I
in the operations and pro-
future because of this etas
crams of the school at every. schools.
ing, and its expressed intent
to eniphasi;e secondary and level and in every possible
There are concessions on

college Jewish education.
The fact is, that the UHS
has no intention of removing,
itself from the operation of
elementary schools and its
involvement
in
eleMentary
Jewish education. Its intent
is merely tt - place greater
emphasis on secondary and
college education than has
been the case heretofore,
without lessening its commit-
ment to elementary Jewish
education. In making this de-
cision, the board followed,
to some degree. the recom-
mendation of a prestigious
and nationally known Jewish
educator. Louis Roffman,
who made a nualitative study
of the 1.111S, under the
:inspires of the Jewish Wel-
fare Federation, in 1968. At
that time, when the Cohn
and Borman branches had
more than double the present
enrollment. he recommended
the consolidation of small
schools, indicating that the
result of the tests which he
had administered to the stu-
dents in the various schools
confirmed his ea rlier im-
pression that the larger the
school unit, the better was
the level of achievement.
However, the
11S board's
proposals are to be reviewed
by the Jewish Welfare Fed-
eration.

"Regrettao:
too, perhaps
due to poor
mmuni•ation
on the part of the school, the
hoard's decision tv eliminate
the school's 'ecru
that is, the
s
the e:
was

edly is dissatisfied with
existing conditions in the
settlement of strike and in-
sists upon representation on
the UHS board, public ac-
counting of funds, continua-
tion of the second session,
retention of school branches.

Numerous appeals have
again been addressed to the
UHS and to Federation from
parents, as groups and as
individuals, demanding re-
consideration of the two is-
sues revolving around the
closing of two branches and
the second session.

A new development locally
which is expected to lead to
a restoration of amity is an
expected solution of a con-
troversey between the UHS
administration and the UHS
Woman's Auxiliary. The con-
flict was over the use of
funds raised by the women
for scholarships. It is re-
ported that a proposal by the
women for a board of six,
three from the women's
groups and three from the
staff, to judge the scholar-
ship selectees is expected to
be approved soon_

Irving Lobs
Suite 202
16444 W. Ton
Phone 355-5535

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SOCIETY

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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
8—Frida
Feb. 16 1973

Birmingham. Mich. 48012_

• SALES • ERVICE •PRICE

LEASING ALL MAKES

order your
'73 NOW!

YOU GET MORE
WHEN YOU DEAL WITH

!SHORE

way above the number tenure, and six-hour teachers
presently to he found there." automatically will have ten-

HARRY ABRAM

12330 Jos. Campau

Spokesmen for the Hebrew after three years of
Teachers Association
con- teaching in the schools.

891-2360

tinned to maintain that a
The rcle of the AFL-CIO
study committee is needed and its president Tom Turn-
to evaluate unresolved griev. Pr, are acknowledged to have
ances. They continue to view helped immensely in bringing
the proposed cancellation of about a solution to the issue
a second school session and and to the reopening of the
the closing of the Cohn and schools.
' Borman branches as preju-
Parents of UHS students
dicial to themselves and the continue to meet and to dis-

DON'T MAKE A

891-0600

Fleet Manager

Res. LI. 8-4119

COSTLY MISTAKE CALL US LAST

THROUGH A SIMPLE AR-
RANGEMENT — JEWISH
NATIONAL FUND AN-
NUITY TRUST —
community. They are ada- cuss the issues involving the you can help Is-
maid in charges of animosity closing of two branches and
rael and at the
toward them by the school's abandonment of the second
superintendent. They go so session. The parents met same lime main-
far as to charge lack of faith again Sunday and named tain the security
in
restoring the hack pay Frances Stein as its secre- of a regular in-

during what they say was a tary.
"lockout," maintaining that
A parent meeting, to which
they should have been paid
all have been invited, will
from Friday. Feb. 2, but are
11 a. m. Sunday
being paid only from Widnes- take place
day, Feb. 7. in the board room of the IlliS
administration building.
In a lengthy statement,
The parents' group report-
-

Histadrut Approves $6.000.000
Campaign Goal for Year's End

MIAMI BEACH (JTA) —
Directors of the Israel His-
tadrut Foundation Inc., ap-
proved a campaign goal of
$6,000,000 for the fiscal year
ending September 1973, at
the foundation's eighth an-
nual mid-winter conference
at the Fontainebleau Hotel.
William H. Sylk of Phila-
delphia was reelected nation-
al chairman. Dr. Leon Kron-
ish was reelected chairman
the board and Dr. Sol
in of New York was re-
led president at the board
• which preceded the
conference. More
.) delegates from
the U.S. and
. participating in

Figures presented by Dr.
Stein to the board disclosed
that the foundation had se-
cured $25,500,000 by the close
of its last fiscal year.

come for life
with annual
rates up to
19%. When you
participate in the ar-
rangement you receive
a fixed income based on
your age and sex for as long a
you live. You will enjoy
sub-
stantial tax advantage.
For information on how you
can participate in the JNF An-
nuity Trust— send us the coupon
below.

JNF HAS DESIGNED A
NEW WAY FOR YOUR
MONEY TO GROW
AND FOR YOU TO
HELP ISRAEL. an

Cash and commitments se-
cured in advance of the mid-
winter conference pushed the
total amount announced to
$26,800,000 reflecting a total
of $1,300,000 raised toward
the $6,000,000 goal adopted.
• • •

aJEWISH

Two thousand new immi-

grants found jobs in Ilistad-

rut-controlled enterprises in
Israel in 1972 according to a

I

2 2 100 Greenfield Rd., Oak Park, Mich. 48237
Name

report at a meeting of the

Address

labor federation's immigrant

City

absorption committee.

I

•I

NATIONAL FUND

Date of Birth

State

Zip Code

-11

