The five co-sponsors of the North American Jewish Day School Conference - PARDES, PEJE, RAVSAK, SDSN and YU - have been engaged in deep conversation toward expanding our collaboration on behalf of the day school field. We are proud that our collaboration on a field-wide conference has proven to be a significant contribution to day school leadership and the field. We believe that our partnership helps us to grasp how the changes in economic, educational, social and technical milieus impact current and emerging needs of individual schools and the field as a whole. We are therefore committing ourselves to increased collaboration, maintaining the conference and adding to it.

Through our deliberations, we have agreed to several principles which will allow us to enhance the synthesis, coordination, and integration of the information, data, and expertise that each organization brings to our collaborative work. We envision these enhancements strengthening each organization and broadening the collaborative efforts in which we engage.

A first fruit of the enhanced collaboration will be the launch of a coordinated, field-wide calendar that will include face-to-face and virtual convenings and professional development opportunities sponsored by one or more of our particular organizations over the next 18 months. This calendar will culminate in the next North American Jewish Day School Conference which will take place during the first three months of 2015. The location and date of that conference will be announced in the coming weeks.

If you have questions, please contact the director of your primary day school network or institution.

Dr. Elaine Cohen, SDSN
Dr. Scott Goldberg, YU
Amy Katz, PEJE
Dr. Marc Kramer, RAVSAK
Dr. Jane West Walsh, Pardes