New Families!

At our Executive Committee meeting this morning, we learned from the Head of School that we have nearly 70 new families joining Kadima this year. In the year of the Great Recession, the fact that we have this many new families committed to Jewish education--and a Kadima education--is the strongest sign that our organization is truly moving forward.

I don't sugarcoat things and I can't say that I don't wish we had more students. We've got some smaller classes, but we've also got ones that are filling up. But for the first time in memory, our Admissions Team--Michelle Starkman and Karen Pery--aided by the rest of the administrative team including our business manager, Arnold Rudnick--nailed their targets. This is critical. Our operational budget is based upon a somewhat amorphous target number of students; if we come in below this number, it means that we will have even higher fundraising numbers. When we miss badly, it can create serious budgetary problems.

This year the team hit their number. This fact, and the fact that they have attracted a significant number of new students (and a huge number of new sixth graders which is truly significant) demonstrates their commitment to excellence and hard work. It shows their professionalism. The Admissions Staff is one of those jobs that gets no respect. If the numbers are down, everyone blames them. If the numbers are up, it is because of the great things that everyone does. But Karen and Michelle deserve a hearty Kol HaKovod. They really did well this year.

And so did everyone else. The administration--Bill, Yuri and Mickey--all pushed very hard to demonstrate that Kadima is on the right track. And we did it with a new adherence to process, procedure and professionalism.

In a year of upheaval, in a year of so much change, we are showing that with a new team at the helm, with new enthusiasm and new clarity of purpose, with a commitment to professionalism and best practices in everything we do, we are poised for greatness.

Kadima!