An open letter to the community
Yeshivah Centre
12 March 2015
The role of the Yeshivah Centre Committee of Management is to ensure the Centre has continued success in the future. Like the whole community, we are totally committed to the unique ethos of the school.
We regret, therefore, that we find ourselves in a position where the good name of the Centre is under threat and confidence has been diminished. We wish it were otherwise. We want to reassure everyone that we are committed to making the Centre and our school better, stronger, and more transparent.
To do so, we are undertaking a number of substantive initiatives that we believe will create the right frameworks to take the Centre and our school forward.
We are approaching the review with an open mind. We want to take from best practice, and seek the best people for a renewed Committee. Mr Merv Adler, Mr Michael Goldhirsch, Mr Chaim Raitman, Mr Shlomo Werdiger and Rabbi Shimshon Yurkowitz are remaining on the Committee during the review and process of renewal to oversee the running of the Centre. Rabbi Yurkowitz will transition off the Committee in the near future. Leah Balter, a parent of the school and vice president of Jewish Care Victoria who has been involved in community consultation around Jewish education funding, is currently assisting the Committee. Reflecting the renewal, we are not appointing a chair at this stage and will do so based on the outcomes of the review.
As we focus on the ongoing operational performance of the school, we are committed to the initiatives above and will communicate regularly on progress. Together these actions provide the basis for continued success.
The Committee of Management
Mr Merv Adler, Mr Michael Goldhirsch, Mr Chaim Raitman, Mr Shlomo Werdiger and Rabbi Shimshon Yurkowitz
We regret, therefore, that we find ourselves in a position where the good name of the Centre is under threat and confidence has been diminished. We wish it were otherwise. We want to reassure everyone that we are committed to making the Centre and our school better, stronger, and more transparent.
To do so, we are undertaking a number of substantive initiatives that we believe will create the right frameworks to take the Centre and our school forward.
- We are weeks away from launching a scheme to respond to the needs of victims of child abuse. An independent and preeminent committee is being established to develop and implement a scheme based on the principles of existing models operating in other organisations.
- We will commence a consultation with parents and others in the community in the coming weeks on the operations and performance of the school. The feedback will be gathered through one-on-one interviews, email and small group sessions.
- We will shortly commence an independent review of the governance arrangements of the Centre including the transparency of the Committee. The review will assess existing best practice models of education governance that underpin great schools. It will make recommendations on how these might operate and apply in our context.
- We will undertake a process to renew the Committee’s composition in the light of this review. This process comes as Mr Chaim New, Mr Yirmi Loebenstein, Mrs Sue Susskind and Mr Don Wolf, the current chair, have chosen to step down from the Committee. We would like to thank them for their many years of voluntary service.
We are approaching the review with an open mind. We want to take from best practice, and seek the best people for a renewed Committee. Mr Merv Adler, Mr Michael Goldhirsch, Mr Chaim Raitman, Mr Shlomo Werdiger and Rabbi Shimshon Yurkowitz are remaining on the Committee during the review and process of renewal to oversee the running of the Centre. Rabbi Yurkowitz will transition off the Committee in the near future. Leah Balter, a parent of the school and vice president of Jewish Care Victoria who has been involved in community consultation around Jewish education funding, is currently assisting the Committee. Reflecting the renewal, we are not appointing a chair at this stage and will do so based on the outcomes of the review.
As we focus on the ongoing operational performance of the school, we are committed to the initiatives above and will communicate regularly on progress. Together these actions provide the basis for continued success.
The Committee of Management
Mr Merv Adler, Mr Michael Goldhirsch, Mr Chaim Raitman, Mr Shlomo Werdiger and Rabbi Shimshon Yurkowitz