Solomon Schechter Day School Association Offers New Consultancy Resources and Listserves

The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism Solomon Schechter Day School Association has produced a brochure listing consultants qualified to help in a variety of school situations. Produced by the Schechter Service Center, "A Collection of Consultants" lists professionals who have expertise in a broad range of issues including project development, fundraising, contracts, teacher recruitment, strategic planning and audits.

According to Kay Pomerantz, Senior Assistant Director of the Department of Education, "The names provided are professional consultants we have interviewed and who either have done work with Schechter schools or who came highly recommended. We wanted to make information about them available to all our Schechter schools so that they would have a resource of a variety of experts to address a school’s specific needs."

In addition, the Department of Education has been hiring outside consultants to do group phone consultations on a regular basis with school presidents. Stephen S. Wolnek, USCJ International President, notes that "as one of the services we provide, the Department of Education is making consultants available to presidents of Schechter schools through phone conferencing. We will hire a consultant to address a particular issue, set up the conference date and time, and provide the call-in service number." The first conference, to take place in late October, will be with Dr. William Weary, who will discuss how to use consultants in the schools.

The Fall issue of the Shibboley Schechter newsletter, sent to the professional staff and lay leaders of the 74 Solomon Schechter schools, featured an article, "On Using Consultants," as a companion piece to the brochure. The article has tips on how to make a consultancy as productive as possible.

USCJ Executive Vice-President Rabbi Jerome Epstein points out there are now three Solomon Schechter Listserves for school professionals -- for principals, presidents, and business managers. He states that "the goal is to try to facilitate networking and collegiality and thereby increase the resources of every school, no matter where it is."

For further information about these resources, contact Kay Pomerantz, Senior Assistant Director of Education, 212-533-7800, ext. 2500, or e-mail education@uscj.org.