Dear Families,
Since our exciting announcement regarding our building partnership with Herzl-Ner Tamid and the move to Mercer Island, we’ve jumped fully into the planning process. In the coming weeks, the architect will be visiting JDS and speaking to groups of faculty and staff to get a sense of how the building can serve our programmatic needs efficiently and sustainably. The joint steering committee is also centering the planning and design around a core set of Jewish values, including the values that JDS holds most central to our mission and vision.
While we work to plan for our future space, we are also working closely with BASIS to plan for our footprint during the 2024–2025 school year. The terms of our lease indicate that BASIS will take over four of our classrooms for the next school year. We are working closely with the BASIS leadership to make sure that this is done in a way that promotes community and cohesiveness for JDS. With our 20% enrollment increase, we are larger than was anticipated in the original lease plan. This is a happy problem to have! While space will be tight for the 2024–2025 school year, we can still run a terrific program for our students.
As I told the faculty and staff earlier this week, our priority right now is to focus on starting this year smoothly. I asked teachers to focus on building relationships, meeting students’ needs, and teaching engaging and exciting content. We will have plenty of time to strategically arrange learning spaces during the summer of 2024.
As promised, JDS Board President Sarah Castoriano and I will hold our second location Q&A session in person after our Simchat Torah Kehillah on Friday, October 6th. Please RSVP here if you plan to attend.
With gratitude,
Meghan
