( 750
DETROIT
THE JEWISH NEWS
8 ADAR II 5755/MARCH 10, 1995
Time To Study
Hillel Day School's board of trustees prepares for vote
next week on a potential move.
JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER
or the board of trustees of
Hillel Day School, the work
has just begun.
After a three-hour pre-
sentation of a task force's
findings Tuesday evening,
the board members must decide
whether to accept a gift of $5 million
which carries a stipulation that the
school move to the Jewish Com-
munity Campus at Maple and Drake
roads.
Board members will spend the
week studying and critiquing reports
made by the 20-member task force
before voting March 14.
"No decision has been made or will
be made until the process is com-
plete," Hillel president Robert
Schostak said as he opened the task-
force meeting Tuesday. "We will not
jeopardize the fiscal integrity of the
school.
"The board needs the opportuni-
ty to review the lengthy, written find-
ings of the task-force subcommittees
which they will do over the next
week, asking their questions and de-
liberating on Tuesday, March 14,"
Mr. Schostak said.
The task force did not make a joint
recommendation. Instead, subcom-
mittees presented their findings for
- the board to consider.
The task force was formed three
months ago to study the issues in-
volving the potential move from the
Middlebelt campus.
The formation of the task force
was prompted by the gift proposal of
$5 million made by Oakland Mall
owner Jay Kogan.
The donation proposal came when
'le school was in the midst of the
nerations campaign, an $11 mil-
n fund-raising effort that would
day for a 28,000-square-foot, two-sto-
ry addition, renovation of the exist-
ing building and add $3 million to
an endowment fund. So far, about
6.7 million has been raised toward
ay ,goal.
't11-2' 1pansion
sx
t'
efforts have continued
S
DETROIT
Cookie Craze
Teen-agers stay up
to bake for homeless.
Page 15
despite the proposal. Groundbrea-
ing for the addition is expected in
June.
After the proposal was received,
school leaders assigned 20 parents
to a task force to study, issues
relevant to a move. The task force
then broke into four subcommittees
to examine subjects related to
cost of a new building; demograph-
ics and feeling of the parent body
about the issue; the proposed loca-
tion's possible impact on educa-
tional content; and transportation
concerns.
About 100 people attended the lat-
est meeting, quietly listening as each
team presented its findings.
The educational team spoke first.
Robert Roth said the subcommittee
assumed the possible new building
would be much like the current
building after the expansion and ren-
ovation, with a few exceptions like
wider corridors and a standard-size
gYm.
The board will
vote March 14.
The education team also sur-
veyed teachers. The majority of
those respondents said a new facil-
ity would not impact the quality of
education.
"Education by definition is hu-
man resource based, not facility
based," Mr. Roth said. "It is based
on who the heck you have teach-
ing. It depends, to a much less de-
gree, on what facility you are
teaching in."
"The quality for math education,
for instance, would not be affected
by the location of the school," he
said.
Harry Eisenberg, the leader of
the location subcommittee, spoke
next. The team looked into a wide
TIME TO STUDY page 8
P1,1111114
Our annual
offbeat look at
Jewish Detroit.
From
Fifty years later, loneliness and pab 7 continue
to scar the memories
' of people who once lived
in the Jewish Children's Home.
JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER
Page 28
Contents on page 3
Story on page 35