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PRESIDENT'S CORNER
There are a number of projects which give us particular pride as we review the successes of the past year. First, we are reworking our management structure, including board structure, staff structure and the description of services provided by CJE. We have reorganized around three main areas of our work: school services, educator services and community education services. This has informed and influenced nearly every level of agency operations. A brand new agency-wide brochure describing these services will be available this summer. At the same time, we have seen new levels of partnership between CJE and its sister agencies (at both the staff and volunteer levels), as well as with the synagogues and schools we serve. We also believe that CJE continues to grow as a valuable resource and conduit for THE ASSOCIATED in its relationship to local congregations. The CJE leadership has worked hard this year to articulate our agency message clearly and succinctly to our various constituencies. We believe that as a result, both our board and the schools we serve have a much better understanding of our mission and the services we provide. We have worked with THE ASSOCIATED to develop better evaluations of our programs and services through a system of outcome measures, and that process has now been woven into our regular board and education staff agendas. Our staff teams are working effectively together to produce wonderful programs. This year we saw the largest attendance ever at our special programs and events for educators. Our Yom Iyun, Yad B’Yad, Early Childhood Educator and Day School conferences featured outstanding speakers and informative workshops. Our Rimon in-service workshops were also well attended and received excellent evaluations from participants. One of my top priorities in the coming year will be marketing the importance of a Jewish education for people of all ages throughout the community and on behalf of our partner schools and THE ASSOCIATED. The CJE board is ready and anxious to participate in THE ASSOCIATED’s visioning process, which will continue to evolve in the coming months. We appreciate the fact that this leadership undertaking will help THE ASSOCIATED assess its priorities and chart its future course for building our community. We trust that Jewish education will rank high as a communal priority, and we are poised to do everything we can to help deliver both the message and the product. When we initiated this occasional publication as a way to keep you informed of programs and developments at CJE, we selected the name Jewish Education Matters, because it really does! Please watch for more CJE efforts to recognize outstanding educators and exemplary school programs under this same banner in the coming year. Annette Saxon |
It’s hard to believe that we are already at the end of another school year, which also brings us to the end of a most productive CJE programming year.