This Week

Accessible Education

Hillel Day School's new tuition plan reduces
costs for middle-income families.

Hillel Day School
Graduated Tuition Scale

Net Tuition

Income

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SHELLI DORFMAN

Related Editorial: page 31

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Staff Writer

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illel Day School's newly unveiled
tuition plan provides a graduated
scale designed to attract more
middle-income families.
"The new tuition structure provides an
opportunity for broadening the availability of
a Hillel Day School education to students in
the community," said Frederick Blechman,
school president.
Hillel Day School Headmaster Dr. Mark
Smiley said, "The school is serious about
making itself accessible to the community,
not just for a specific group."
He said his hope is to "bring in families
who may not have religious commitment
with the day school — bringing them into
the Jewish world."
The graduated plan works in tandem with
Hillel's share of a $5 million endowment gift
from Lois and the late Dr. Milton Shiffman
of West Bloomfield to the Detroit Jewish
community. The 1999 gift was made to the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's
major Millennium Campaign for Detroit's
Jewish Future. The endowment is dispersed
through the Shiffinan Family Day School
Tuition Assistance Fund.
The new plan, set to begin in the 2000-
2001 school year, will provide reduced tuition
for families in a wider range of income levels,
as well as reduce the cost of tuition to a
greater level for those in the $109,999 range
and lower.
A 10-tier graduated tuition scale will replace
the current two-level plan instituted during the
1994-95 school year. At present, families exceed-
ing an adjusted gross income of $119,999 are
paying $7,875 per child, while those in the
$60,000 to $119,999 range pay $6,900.
The newplan, approved Jan. 11 by the
school's board of directors, will include the
new range of income from $120,000 to
$149,999.
A current sibling discount plan will be
extended to offer further reductions.
A mandatory give/get fund-raising obliga-
tion for each Hillel family will remain at
$450 per year.
Determination of the tuition allowance for
each family will be made through the
Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J.

,

Shelli Dorfman can be reached at
(248) 354-6060, ext. 246, or by e-mail
at sdolfman@thejewishnews.com

It will review applications, with the school
selecting placement based on ETS' recom-
mendation.
Families earning $60,000 or less in their
adjusted gross income level will be assessed
through the school's financial department.
Thirty percent of Hillel's 525 families are
now receiving some sort of financial aid, with
a hope that that number will increase with
the new program, said Scott Cranis, Hillel's
chief financial officer.
With a building that will potentially house
825 students, Dr. Smiley said of the 770-stu,
dent school, "Growth is a byproduct (of the
tuition plan), not the goal. : )
He said we are "blessed to live in a corn-
munity with no artificial restraints on enjoy-
ing a form of education that is nothing short
ofpowerful."
A finance committee comprised of Hillel
parents created the new tuition scale. Chaired
by Scott Eisenberg, it includes Jim Berger,
Andy Belsky, Gary Shiffman, Lori Weisberg
and Terri Farber Roth.
"There aren't any other programs like this
around the country that we are aware of," said
Cranis, ex officio member of the committee.
The Shiffman Family Day School Tuition
Assistance Fund's board includes the Shiffman
family and several Federation board members.
The board each year sets funding priorities;
$75,000 was awarded to Hillel, which applied
it to restructured tuition.
The 42-year-old school now receives just
over $500,000 a year from Federation to be
used solely for scholarships and tuition assis-
tance. More than $700,000 raised by the
school each year goes "to relieve tuition bur-
dens in the school," said Cranis.
Endowment campaign donations are desig-
nated based on the gift, including financial
aid, or specific programming.
Marianne Milgrom Bloomberg, director of
development, said her message to the commu-
nity is, "We want you to be here. We want your
child to be here — and to be comfortable."
Bloomberg said the school understands spe-
cial circumstances may warrant a change in fam-
ily income, including those that arise during a
school year. She hopes now that those who look
at open-house invitations to the Farmington
Hills school will not disregard them.
"Families who thought they would not be
able to send their children to Hillel, should
revisit the possibility," Cranis said. ❑

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Families with an adjusted gross income under $60,000
should apply to our-Tuition Allowance Program.

Additional assistance is available based on special
circumstances for all income levels. Please call the school
for more information, (248) 851 -3220.

Source: Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit

Sibling Discount:

For example:

A family with an adjusted gross income of $80,000
Tuition for Child #1 - $5,500
Tuition for Child #2 = $5,000
Tuition for Child #3 = $4,500

Source: Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit