By Jonathan Rubin

jrubin@jfri.org

WARWICK — In some ways, schools are like businesses — the most important factor in their success can be one thing: location, location, location.

Over the past two weeks the Jewish Community Day School (JCDS) has been holding focus sessions concerning where the school can best find success — in its traditional home on the East Side of Providence, or a relocation to Warwick, where younger Jewish families appear to be moving.

“This is one of the most important decisions the school has to make,” said Bruce Wolpert, president of the board of trustees.

School leaders say they are at a crucial decision point — on one hand, they have two new heads of school, are reevaluating staff and are seriously revising the school’s educational and spiritual components; on the other hand, Jews are moving south for numerous reasons (lower taxes, better public schools, higher economic growth) and the school’s enrollment is declining — from a high of about 200 to 181 now. (Note: the all-time high was actually 240 students, but this included an unanticipated rush of Russian immigrants in the 1990s, who have since graduated or moved on).

In the past few weeks two plans and artist renderings were presented to parents and the community for feedback at each of the potential locations — one at the Jewish Community Center in Providence and one at the Siperstein Tamarisk Assisted Living center in Warwick.

Warwick and Providence

The Warwick idea would involve using large portions of unused land currently owned by the Jewish Seniors Agency to build a new school from scratch. Located off Route 95, the school would back up to the highway and its front would face a grove of trees, fields and wetlands. The school would be located close to Shalom Apartments, a senior retirement apartment building, and Tamarisk, creating a campus of sorts. Of the two options, it’s the cheapest and easiest to build.

The Providence-area search process has been much more grueling. “Real estate is just too scarce,” said communications chair Alan Harlam. He added that the Nathan Bishop school, located 150 feet from the school, is not yet on the market and that preliminary visits have shown it to be too expensive to renovate. Searches into a possible East Providence location were halted by parents last fall over commuting, cost and safety concerns.

JCC option

This brought the facilities committee back to their original location — the Jewish Community Center (JCC). The second plan called for large additions behind the JCC site. This plan would have the benefit of putting the school in the midst of many other Jewish agencies, not to mention the JCC, which could yield a pool and a basketball court.

It would also require the  most logistics — this plan would add additional floors to the building, and require zoning approval; in addition, there could be neighborhood resistance. Plus, it requires a massive shuffling of organizations — the Bureau of Jewish Education and the Jewish Federation would be moved to the upper floors, the Rhode Island Mikveh (ritual bath) would have to be relocated, and arrangements with Brown University would have to be made in regard to parking (see sidebar for pros and cons).

Addressing the issues of fundraising for the project, Wolpert said that the pre-campaign assessment done a few years ago revealed that the community has the potential to raise $30 to $45 million, “but with a clear bias towards new projects, not improving old ones.”

Kinks

The tricky part is that there isn’t a lot of room for compromise — Jews in the West Bay have been clamoring for serious recognition of their population for years — they have  7,600 Jews and are increasing, Providence has 8,400 and is showing a slight decline.

The Jews in Providence, however, cite the higher population density there and the fact that 70 percent of the school’s current enrollment lives in the Providence area. Having a school in a suburban location, some say, is moving it from the center of a community to a non-residential location. “How can you create a school community  when you can’t even walk home to a friend’s house?” asked Lisa Bergman, of Providence.

Busing would certainly be an option — The JCDS already has students bused in from New Bedford, Barrington, and Southern Rhode Island.

And one of the hardest questions — will the extra 100 or so students that the school plans to attract materialize — is still being addressed.

The school will be holding its next open meeting on Tuesday, June 13, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Temple Sinai, 30 Hagan Ave., Cranston. The site committee will lead an open forum.

In addition there will be a panel discussion by local and national leaders in Jewish education. The panel will consist of Marc N. Kramer, executive director of RAVSAK, the Jewish community day school network; Jennifer Miller, Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE), Make your Mark Consulting Services; Alice Goldstein and Sidney Goldstein, Professor Emeritus Brown University.

All interested parties are invited to attend.

For more information, call Meredith Einsohn at 863-1510.

Information about the site search is available at www.jcdsri.org.