c7--- TTBn
Hillel Day School's barbecue
for new students: Enrollment
has grown by 37 percent in the
past decade
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Steady Growt
Enrollment at local day schools is up this year,
but not skyrocketing.
JULIE WIENER
Staff Writer
W
ith students settling into
the new academic year,
local day school enroll-
ment numbers are in,
and they're up slightly. Hillel Day
School and Yeshiva Beth Yehudah are
boasting the largest increases.
Hillel's student body now numbers
712, a 4.5 percent increase from last
year's 684 students.
At the Yeshiva, total enrollment is
755 this year (with 446 students in
the girls' school and 309 in the boys'
school), up 3.7 percent from 728 stu-
dents in 1996-97.
Akiva Hebrew Day School's num-
bers remain fairly steady — its 296
students represent a minor increase
from last year's 294.
Ann Arbor Hebrew Day School
interim principal Naomi Blumenberg
reports that enrollment — at 86 stu-
dents — is on par with last year, but
was unable to provide statistics from
1996-97 or previous years.
And although Darchei Torah just
opened a girls' high school class, the
school's overall enrollment has
dropped slightly to 274 students,
compared to last year's 285. Yeshiva
Gedolah's enrollment has also dropped
slightly, with 140 students, compared
to last year's 145.
While this year's fluctuations are in
the single digits percentage-wise, all
local day schools — with the excep-
tion of Akiva — report significant
increases over their numbers from a
decade ago.
Darchei Torah, which was founded
in 1986 with only 14 students, has
grown to almost 20 times that size.
Yeshiva Gedolah's enrollment has
almost tripled, up from 50 students in
1987-88.
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah and Hillel
Day School have also enjoyed large
gains: the yeshiva's enrollment has
grown by more than 150 percent since
1987-88, when total enrollment was
476. Hillel's student body has grown
by 37 percent in the past decade, with
1987-88 enrollment at 519.
But growth can be a mixed bless-
ing, straining existing facilities and —
if tuition assistance is required —
stretching school budgets. "Over the
past five years we have had three
expansions of our facilities, but they
have not been able to keep up with
our growth," said Rabbi Eli
Mayerfeld, executive director of
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah.
Akiva's enrollment has
defied trends of growth or
decrease, fluctuating any-
where from 250 to 340 over
the past decade, said its prin-
cipal, Rabbi Karmi Gross.
But with other schools grow-
ing, why has Akiva's enroll-
ment been so erratic?
"It depends on what hap-
pens each year," said Gross,
who blamed part of Akiva's
zero growth rate on its suc-
cess as a Zionist institution.
"Aliyah (immigration to
Israel) is an occupational haz-
ard," he joked, adding that
Akiva lost 10 children this
year when several families
moved to Israel.
However, while Rabbi
Gross would like to see
Akiva's enrollment grow to 30
students per grade (approxi-
mately 360 total), he has no
specific recruitment strategies.
"Our most serious attempt at
increasing enrollment is doing the best
we can. Akiva's record speaks for itself:
our graduates get in to the best uni-
versities and yeshivot," he said.
Will the enrollment trends contin-
ue in Detroit?
Rabbi Dovid Kahn, principal of
Darchei Torah's boys' school, antici-
pates modest growth in the coming
years, but wants to retain the school's
small class sizes and focus on personal
attention.
Hillel hopes to continue growing,
but has no specific enrollment goals,
said Marianne Bloomberg, director of
development. Yeshiva Beth Yehudah
anticipates continued increases as well,
and is studying ways to expand its
facilities to accommodate growth, said
Rabbi Mayerfeld. Ann Arbor's Hebrew
Day School aims to increase enroll-
ment to 125 students over the next
few years.
Nationally, educators report that
day school enrollment has been on the
upswing since 1990, and many fear a
financial crisis. In response, a newly
formed national organization of lay
leaders from Jewish day schools of all
denominations will be hosting a
forum on financing Jewish education
later this month.