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Re-visioning Education
Quick Links:
The Search for a Director of Congregational Learning
Revisioning Education at CBI
Application to the National Association of Temple Educators
The DCL Search Committee
Contact the DCL Search Committee
Re-Visioning Education at CBI
As CBI entered its third year of developing and implementing our Long Range Strategic Plan, we turned our focus to youth and family education and programming. In November an Education Task Force was formed to guide the transition toward a new emphasis on innovative informal, family, and intergenerational learning, in addition to formal education. This effort came in response to our families’ current and future needs articulated during the year-long strategic planning process.
With the aim of “re-visioning” education at CBI, the Education Task Force met four times from December through February. The goal was to envision an environment and culture of lifelong learning within our congregation. The task force considered ways to build upon our considerable strengths as well as ways to develop and implement creative, flexible, and innovative informal learning opportunities. On the Education Task Force were Rabbi Berk, Rabbi Ettman, Lesley Mills, Amy Corton, Liz Levine, Barbara Lounsbury, Audrey Levine, Marvin Estrin, Lisa Foster, Madeline Cohen, and Samara Muller-Peters.
The task force reviewed the education goals set forth in CBI’s Long Range Strategic Plan; the LRSP Education Subcommittee’s research and recommendations; current organizational charts; historical enrollment and attendance data for Early Childhood Education programs, Religious School, High School, and ALEINU/Adult Learners Network programs; and demographic data for the congregation. Task force members identified programming that is working well, areas that could be strengthened, and directions in which the congregation may wish to move in the next few years.
The task force developed a list of “best practice” synagogues across the country considered exemplary in the area of lifelong learning and interviewed educators, rabbis, and lay leaders at these synagogues to learn about their programs and how they are structured. Rabbi Berk offered a vision for lifelong learning at CBI, and task force members developed and shared their personal visions.
At its final meeting in February the Education Task Force defined a new education “umbrella” position – Director of Congregational Learning (DCL) – and began to set priorities for this position. Initially, the DCL will focus on the Religious School, High School, and family education, but as the position evolves, this individual’s responsibilities may broaden. He or she will report directly to Rabbi Berk and will work closely with senior staff, especially ECE Director Tammy Vener and Program Director Bonnie Graff.
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