And So We Change
March 17, 2008
Autumn to winter, winter into spring, spring into summer, summer into fall,— So rolls the changing year, and so we change; motion so swift, we know not that we move. —Dinah Mulock Craik
I will always remember the very first phone message I received when I joined Temple Emanu-El almost two years ago; it was waiting for me when I arrived for my first day of work. The message was from a father of a Temple Emanu-El religious school student, regarding his child’s class assignment. The student had been placed on a waiting list for the early Sunday session.
On my first day at Temple Emanu-El, I knew little about the school’s faculty, curriculum, or culture. I’m not sure I knew yet that we had an early and a late session. I knew absolutely nothing about our school registration process, or the mechanisms by which students were assigned to one session or the other. By the time I got off the phone from that very first call, however, I knew a lot about the anxiety and aggravation that attends these class assignments and the stakes that ride on a child’s receiving the assignment that a parent prefers.
For two years we followed (as far as I could tell) an inherited procedure: students would be assigned to their preferred sections on a first-come, first-served basis. Once we hit a certain number of students in a section, which generally corresponded with half of the projected number of students in that grade, based on the prior year’s enrollment, additional students who requested that section would be placed on a waiting list. If, as the start of school drew near, it appeared that we could move students from the waiting list to the class list of choice without creating an imbalance (too many or too few students in a section) that threatened to compromise the quality of instruction, we would do so.
Meanwhile, everyone waited for their child’s assignment. Carpool plans were delayed. Decisions about after-school activities had to be postponed. The whole ordeal made everyone, including me, a bit cranky.
So this year we’re making a change that should prove more convenient for everyone.
Registration—that is, the act of providing the Temple with information about your child(ren) for the purposes of enrollment—will proceed pretty much as it has in recent years: packets will go out later this month, timed to coincide with the return from public school Spring Break. Enrollment, however, which is when we let you know that your child has been enrolled in our program, in a particular class—third grade or fifth, for example, early or late—will be handled slightly differently. It will still be on a first-come, first-served basis. The sooner you get your completed registration forms and fees to us, the more likely you are to receive the section assignment that you prefer.
The difference is that those families who have completed their registration, come in before the cutoff for their preferred enrollment, and who have begun payment (at least one installment) of their 2008-2009 membership dues, will receive their enrollment packets beginning in early July. Families whose children are on waiting lists but are otherwise cleared for enrollment will have the choice of remaining on the waiting list or taking enrollment in the open section. Section limits will be established in order to preserve the quality of classroom instruction: no more than 15 or 20 students per section (Hebrew and Sunday classes, respectively), and no fewer than seven.
It is my hope that this new system will better serve our families, and that the change will be good for everyone involved: parents, students, and teachers. As always, I welcome your thoughts.
