Houston, Texas (PRESS RELEASE) –
Amid a continued surge in enrollment for Jewish day schools across the U.S. and Canada, 100 heads of school met in Houston for their exclusive biennial retreat, hosted by Prizmah, the network for Jewish day schools. Leaders in the field, along with keynote presenters, led sessions covering topics such as: navigating leadership challenges and opportunities with nuance and intention, developing ethical and future-ready artificial intelligence strategies for schools, addressing affordability, and more.
“Jewish day schools are essential to the strength of our community into the future,” said Paul Bernstein, CEO of Prizmah. Heads of school are at the forefront of ensuring we have excellent, growing, and increasingly affordable schools. In a complex world with many challenges, they carry the burden of ensuring the success of each school, creating the best environments for their students, faculty, and the entire school community. The Prizmah Head of School Retreat offers the tools, knowledge, and connections to lead with confidence and care, learning with and supporting their fellow heads.”
Sheila Dubin, a Fortune 1,000 leadership coach from Cultivating Leadership, served as Facilitator-in-Residence, led sessions on frameworks for effective decision-making in complex times, and navigated real-life tensions to sustain healthy school communities. Christina Lewellen, President and CEO of the Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools (ATLIS), spoke about AI in schools and other technological tools and strategies heads of schools can use to maximize human contributions.
“It was a wonderful opportunity to sit with other heads of school, to learn about similarities of our schools, and to support each other in aspects of this work where our schools are different as well,” said Ilana Mann, Head of School in Kinneret in New York, and a participant in Prizmah’s Day School Leadership Training Institute for new and aspiring heads of schools. “We were able to pause and think about things in a meaningful way. The speakers’ thoughtful presentations gave tools that I can bring back to school and use immediately.”
Added Yikara Levari, Head of Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh, “I was so blown away by how many Orthodox Jewish Women are in this position because I thought I was alone. It was so validating. There are so many things that I’m experiencing that other heads of school are too. I met people I will keep in touch with, and I will come back with so much strength – really.”
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Preceding provided by Jason Edelstein, public relations consultant at San Diego Jewish Academy