Chabad's school off to strong start

Principal afraid second opening could 'kill both'

ANNE BRADY
Managing Editor

Twenty students may not seem like a very full class, let alone an entire high school enrollment. But the 20 freshman and sophomore students attending classes during the second semester at the new Jewish Community High School on the campus of the Chabad-Lubavitch Center in Phoenix represent more than twice last semester's enrollment.

"We're on our way," said Administrative Principal Robert Templin, noting that School Director Rabbi Zalman Levertov had only anticipated an enrollment of 10-15 students by the end of the first school year.

Templin is optimistic that enrollment will continue to grow, although he is concerned that if and when the proposed dual-track Jewish high school opens on the site of a new Jewish Community Center campus, slated for the fall of the year 2000, there won't be enough students to support both schools.

"I think, in reality, if you put two (Jewish high) schools here, you'll kill both," he predicted. "You have a limited market."

Templin advocated that leaders of the existing school and the proposed school "get past this and sit down and all talk together" about ways to work together on one Jewish high school.

However, Fred Zeidman, the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix's staff representative to the Jewish Community High School Committee (which is developing the plans for the dual-track school), said he and the other committee members believe there is room for both schools.

"There are some parents who want a more egalitarian approach," said Zeidman. "Let's open up as many doors as possible."

He said some members of the committee were "frustrated" because they had spent "a better part of the year" making plans for their school, including seeking out comment from Valley rabbis, when Chabad announced it was opening a high school "out of the blue."

Both co-chairs of the committee, Debby Harris and Steve Kanner, were unavailable for comment this week. The committee was originally formed as a subcommittee of the federation's Commission on Jewish Continuity and Community, but it is in the process of forming an independent, non-profit corporation of its own, Zeidman explained.

"We (at the federation) feel it's important to be supportive. We want them to be successful, just as we want the Chabad school to be successful," said Zeidman. "But why limit it to just one choice?"

The proposed non-sectarian school would have two education tracks - one traditional (for Orthodox and other religiously observant students) and one contemporary. Discussions have centered on locating the school on the same campus with the future Jewish Community Center facility at 40th Street and Shea Boulevard.

Currently, the school at Chabad has about seven girls and 13 boys enrolled, mostly freshmen and a few sophomores. There are immigrants from Russia and Israel in the mix, but only two Orthodox students that Templin is aware of, he said.

"Our school is a community school. A good portion of our students are not religious at all," Templin said, although he acknowledged there is a strong religious education component, with classes taught by an Orthodox rabbi.

Enrollment at either or both Jewish high schools could be bolstered by an Arizona Supreme Court ruling last week that upheld as constitutional a state tax credit for people who donate money to private-school scholarship organizations (see related story, at right).

Templin said his school's "break-even point" financially is about 100 students.

"My hope is the community in Phoenix would see the value of this and support it," he said. "This is a very viable alternative" for parents of public school students, and also for local Jewish parents now sending their high-schoolers to Catholic schools for a superior education and safe environment.

"What the Jewish community needs to do is make up its mind whether it's going to support this," Templin said.

Zeidman agreed on the importance of Jewish day-school education and the need for community support.

"We have to take our blinders off in this regard," he said.

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