By COLlive reporter
Representatives of Jewish schools for boys in Crown Heights reportedly held an emergency meeting Monday in an unknown location discussing the shortage of space in the institutions.
A teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, told COLlive that 60 children were not accepted into any school because of a lack of space.
Rabbi Hershel Lustig, dean of the Elementary Division of Educational Institute Oholei Torah, told COLlive in response: “If there was such a meeting, I was not involved.”
Also Rabbi Yosef Simpson, Principal at United Lubavitcher Yeshiva, told COLlive, “I don’t know of any meeting.”
The two, who head the largest elementary schools in the Brooklyn neighborhood, aknowledged that there is a problem, but differed on whether it is immediate.
“I don’t know of anyone who was not able to get in,” Rabbi Lustig said. “There is definitely a very tight situation. If you project to the future, it can develop into a problem.”
His explanation to the mysterious meeting is “someone might be raising the roof because he wants to enroll in a second school after being accepted somewhere else first.”
Rabbi Simpson, on the other hand, said: “I know we turned away quite a few children. We are talking about pre-schoolers. We are pushing 30 in a class and don’t have the physical space to open a new class.”
60 is an exaggeration, according to Simpson. “I would say certainly in the area of 40. This is a crisis that will only be going to get worse.”
In recent years new schools have opened, catering to specialized needs of students, such as Cheder at the Ohel on one hand and Ohr Menachem on the other.
“We are giving better service today – better rooms and smaller classes,” Rabbi Lustig says. “We actually had more talmidim in past years, before the other schools opened. We had classes in rooms that today, parents wouldn’t stand for.”
Rabbi Simpson: “Is there a solution? I don’t know of any remedy for this problem. But there definitely is a crisis. I think it’s due to many young couples not going on shlichus these days because of a shortage of positions. So they go to college and settle here, with their growing families.”
We as a community need to revamp Ocean Parkway immediately. It was never wise to leave it the way was done.
It should not take too much to make it flourish with the right attitude towards it.
My husband and I went to discuss tuition. When we were asked what we can afford, we said straight out— a decent amount — the man sitting across from us tells us— if you say 1 (for example) , then you can obviously pay 2……I was like— what on earth??? They expect you to come and lowball them….. We have obviously created such expectations by our behavior in the past……pple– wake up and smell the coffee, it costs to run a school ( schools should definitely fundraise, no doubt) but tuition must be paid, STOP LOWBALLING, STOP TRYING TO GET… Read more »
Listen, I don’t know where you’re coming from, but as far as my knowledge, your comment has nothing, whatsoever o do with the ensuing connversation. It sounds like you’ve got personal problems… I mean, think for a second – what about the parents who start applying starting from Tishrei the year before, and aren’t ACCEPTED due to lack of FUNDS??? Is that considered teaching for free? When we say Lubavitch is Reich, I feel silly thinking in those terms when I see and hear about the alarming statistics of kids going to who-knows-what schools, because their parents can’t pay the… Read more »
you hit it right on the nose maybe if ppl would stop driving around fancy cars etc. and actually start caring!!!!!!!!!!!!! for their sons chinuch not just saying they care then maybe something would be able to get done e.g. build another building etc.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Lets not forget parents who wake up two weeks before labor day and expect the schools to roll out the red carpet.
Rabbi Simpson: “I think it’s due to many young couples not going on shlichus these days because of a shortage of positions. So they go to college and settle here, with their growing families”.
what does that mean??
going to collage?
who ?
numbers?
If every person who is sitting in their summer homes RIGHT NOW would be paying full tuition instead of spending on luxuries, our schools would not be in the state they are in today.
Sure, its hard to pay: but when tuition comes after the expenses that are truly important, and wll fund our schools properly and make sure the teachers are paid on time – then something is terribly wrong with our priorities.
“In recent years new schools have opened, catering to specialized needs of students, such as Cheder at the Ohel on one hand and Ohr Menachem on the other” AND DARCHAI MENACHEM IN THE CENTER.
when will the school start getting qualified professional hebrew and english teachers (qualified in the real world is a masters degree to teach)
We wanted to send our son to a CH yeshivah for first grade & were put on a waiting list – which probably means we are not getting in. They encourage there talmidim to go on Shlichus but later have no room for there children?
Let’s face it. If people were able to pay full tuition, there would be a loooong line of people BEGGING to be teachers. and the school can then be SELECTIVE as to who is hired. And then hire based on skill.
This will finally break the cycle as follows:
It would be easier to fund-raise because you are fundraising for something REAL! and you would not NEED to charge full tuition because you have fundraisers
The solution should not be to have to move from Crown heights – Kan Tziva. The Shchuna should be a place where everyone can get the proper education from the school that is best for them.
We need real solutions.
This is an old problem in CH. when i was in school we had 28 kids in our class.
thats why I live in Monsey.
MAY THERE WILL AL
WAYS BE SUCH CRISIS!!!!!!!!!
There is pleanty of space in the schools the only children turned away were kids who wanted to go from one school to another so the schools said they need to take kids who have no place to go first!!!
If there’s no room for your kids – come on over to the five towns! The chinuch here is great, and room for everyone…
the immediate crisis is that the schools are not covering their payrolls so the teachers are not getting paid for teaching the children in those crowded classes.
the schools in crown heights (and the rest of lubavitch) are unfortunatly glorified baby sitting services
and i wish someone would open a school and charge the right price and provide the right education
Yes!
They should have let Medgar Evers buy it!
remember Ocean Parkway? Plenty of room there….
crown street has an entire block!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! who let themn build condo’s back@back to a school!!!
i dont really get the point
there was a meeting, there wasnt a meeting… and you talk about how schools opened catering to specialized needs of the children, i had my son in one of them and they didnt get anything, and the school that my son is in now the one that does cater to kids with specific needs you dont even mention.
Thank you admin, we know its better not to accept a kid, then to take him and expect us to work for free.
Sorry, there is always space. Kids are denied places because they can’t pay. it always comes down to money.