Head of School S Board Report

Head of School’s Board Report

Benjamin Costa, August 2016

Welcome to school year 2016-17! We are using the summer to plan professional development that looks at ways to improve academic performance, increase student engagement, while maintaining a safe learning environment Professional development and instructional planning in August will look closely at the data analysis and will be used to create rigorous curriculum that targets individual student needs in an ongoing fashion.

I. Building Leadership at Harlem Hebrew

• School Leadership in conjunction with CMO staff are currently planning our two-week summer institute scheduled to begin on 8/22/16. This will include a joint team-building day with HLA in Brooklyn.

II. Strengthening the Capacity of the Organization

• 2 of our general studies teachers will be attending week long institutes on the teaching of writing. These teachers received grants from Hebrew Public. Each teacher will provide turnkey training to staff during our August institute.
• Linda Esposito, Director of General Studies Curriculum and Instruction attended two week-long institutes for administrators.

III. Creating a Culture of Performance and Development

• Teachers and supervisors will once again meet at meetings to analyze and discuss classroom, grade-wide and school-wide trends in data. We will focus on using those assessments to determine specific areas of need in reading and math and develop individual action plans for each student based upon this data. Information on these assessments is given to parents on progress reports and at parent teacher conferences. This information will be used to help us determine academic interventions, summer school recommendations as well as student retentions. Student performance data is shared with the education committee of the board on a regular basis.
• This year, we have instituted a weekly forum for teachers called “Kid Talk,” organized by grade level, to strategize and personalize individual plans for students so that these plans are consistently being assessed, analyzed and adapted.
• We will again be a Teachers College Project School and will have 12 days with 2 professional developers – 5 days for grades K-2 and 7 days for grades 3-4.
• Harlem Hebrew works hard to ensure 95% attendance compliance. Our social worker works with families to help ensure students are in school 95% of the time or more.

IV. Community

• The Parent Organization Presidents met with the Head of School on 8/2/16 to set meeting dates for 2016-17.
• The Parent Campaign raised approximately $90,000.00 in 2015-16 to support the school.

V. Staffing

We are actively recruiting for the following positions for 2016-17:

• Hebrew Teacher

VI. Enrollment

For 2016-17, we have 382 students enrolled as follows:

Offers will continue to be made in an ongoing fashion until all seats are filled. We currently have 353 students on our K waiting list.

OPERATIONS REPORT TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

I. Student Enrollment for 2017-18

• We have already begun our advertising campaign for student enrollment for 2017-18.

II. Food Service

Meals Ordered

• For 2015-16 we ordered meals as follows

Breakfast: 210 Lunch: 215 Snack: 270

• Orders will changed based upon the completion of the Free and Reduced Price Meals Application and the decision of the parents whether or not to participate in the school meals program.
• We will carefully monitor orders vs. consumption to make certain we are ordering the right number of meals.

Reimbursement

NYSED Income Verification Process is completed as we receive applications. We process each application according to NYSED regulations.

III. Insurance and Benefits

IV. Technology

• We are moving from OnCourse to PowerSchool for 2016-17.
• New classrooms will be equipped with the appropriate technology.
• IT complaints continue to be tracked and monitored on a regular basis. A Network Outsource tech comes each month for maintenance. All staff can contact the help desk via their laptops for minor issues.
• During the school year, teacher websites are updated each Friday with news and events of the week. School website is updated weekly, or even more frequently, as needed.

V. Facilities

• Senior school leadership have been working together with the Real estate committee, the architectural firm of BL companies, our owner’s rep Levien and Company and FOHLA as we move forward in the construction phase of the construction of a 20,000 square foot addition to the building and renovation of the present building. The building permits have been issued and work has begun. The Summer construction project in the existing building has been moving forward swiftly and is on target for completion before school begins.