7 years ago

Teacher’s Strike Ends at Bais Rivkah

The teacher’s strike at Bais Rivkah Girls’ School of Crown Heights is finally coming to an end, with changes in administration and a new board legally installed. The following is a statement released by the school • Full Statement

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Thursday, 8 Iyar, 5777
May 4, 2017

Dear Parents ,שי

Together with the principals of all divisions, we are happy to finally announce that, after several long and frustrating weeks, our beloved Beis Rivka will reopen tomorrow on a regular full schedule, for all classes. It is our sincere hope that our teachers and staff will be paid from now on in a timely fashion, and iy”h they – and our daughters – will never again experience what took place over these past months.

As members of the Board of Trustees, it is our privileged responsibility to deal with the challenges in order to help Beth Rivkah, a mosad so dear to the Rebbe in which he invested tremendous effort, in order to create an even brighter and more viable future for our ever growing and flourishing student body.

We cannot do this alone. Along with the Rebbe’s Brochos and Hashem’s help, we will need the support and involvement of each and every one of you in order to succeed in our mission.

Needles to say, we, as parents, share your frustration with the events of the last few weeks, and rather than rehashing those events would like, instead, to share with you the following exciting developments:

1. The new formation of the board of trustees has been formally instated with full legal powers and will begin functioning immediately.

2. One of the first goals on the agenda is to reactivate and broaden the Vaad Hachinuch whose responsibility it is to oversee the educational and spiritual aspects of our daughters’ education, assuring that it is done according to the Rebbe’s directives.

3. A critical component of building any institution is fundraising. We are pleased to announce that Rabbi Moshe Pinson, a capable and well-known community leader has been engaged to spearhead the school’s development efforts.

4. Over the past few weeks, many parents have volunteered to get more involved in the school. We look forward to working with you, giving you the opportunities to contribute your talents and resources towards the betterment of the educational experience of our daughters. In addition, we will establish an open and direct line of communication enabling parents to communicate their ideas directly to the board and administration.

As parents, you are major stakeholders in the school, and deserve to be updated with developments regarding the school. It is understandable, however, that transparency must be balanced with confidentiality and respect. It is due to these considerations that much of the goings-on behind the scenes were not shared with the public. Baruch Hashem, those efforts have borne fruit and we are now able to move forward. We apologize for the extra stress that the lack of information may have caused, and are confident that you can understand and appreciate the reasons for it.

Among the various responsibilities that a board assumes, the financial situation requires the most immediate attention and we have already begun our work in that area. We are confident that through improved tuition collection systems coupled with a new approach to fundraising we will succeed in this effort.

We would like to inform you that Rabbi Benzion Stock has resigned from the board of trustees and will continue serving Beis Rivkah as our administrator. We look forward to working with Rabbi Stock in order to help implement the necessary changes and improvements.

With Hashem’s help, great things are in store for Beis Rivkah. Today, we are opening a new chapter in Beis Rivka’s glorious history. As this board moves forward we hope to add to the great accomplishments of an already outstanding mosad and to help make it a School of which we can truly be proud. With Hashem’s help and the Rebbe’s zechus, inspiration and brochos for all of us working together, we iy”h will succeed.

With blessing for true chassidishe nachas from our daughters,

Members of the Board:

Rabbi Avrohom Shemtov, Chairman
Mr. Mendy Gansburg
Rabbi. Ephraim Goldfein
Mr. Yerachmeal Jacobson
Mr. Dovid Junik
Mr. Yoseph Kazarnovsky
Mr. Yigal Niasoff
Mr. Itchik Orimland
Mr. Dovid Sputz