Welcome to my blog! I’m a proud parent and Board director of The Ottawa Jewish Community School. I’m proud because of the work we’re doing as a school and a community. I’m also proud of the forward movement we’re making to ensure that we’re teaching the future leaders of the Ottawa Jewish community to the best of our and their abilities, as well as to meet our ambition of being at the upper echelon of elementary education in Ottawa.
As many of you are aware, to this end, the school engaged NoTosh (a global educational consultancy) to help us develop and flesh out our ideals and the best ways by which to reach them. Through this extensive process, the school’s design team (comprised of faculty, administration, and a Board director) developed our North Stars, or the 6 main guiding principles of our school. This fall our Board of Directors spent an evening together exploring these North Stars and discussing their meaning regarding our work as a board and the daily work of the school. For my first blog post, I’d like to share some of that discussion with you.
- Each Person is Responsible For The Other
This is a central tenet in Judaism: “Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh La’zeh”. For the school, this looks like students helping each other, teachers and classes working together, and ultimately everyone (faculty, students, staff) reaching together for a common goal. For our work as a Board, this means that we can’t simply work in silos and that both the quality and the reach of our work are amplified when we help each other (within the Board itself and between the Board and the professional staff and faculty of the school).
- A Floor, but no ceiling
This is most easily explained by saying that we reach for the stars but keep our feet firmly planted on the ground. Our best work is done when we’re striving to be the best version of ourselves. Our basic work, as a Board of Directors, is to ensure ongoing sustainability of the school without sacrificing quality or accessibility – a delicate balance indeed. In this work, it is important to remember that there is a clear baseline from which we start and below which we cannot dip, but there is no limit to the heights of quality, sustainability, and accessibility that may be reached through our best work as a team. Only by reaching for the moon can we ensure that we’re truly becoming the best we can be.
- Ruach (spirit, community)
Our celebrations and traditions are both what bring us together and hold us together. As a Board, we are committed to celebrating all the milestones of the school, our students, and our directors, to ensure a feeling of community throughout the organization. In the school, this may sound and look like large gatherings, loud voices, singing, or dancing, but at the Board level it can simply be celebrating each others’ triumphs or family events.
- We Are Always on Inspiring Jewish Journeys
Obviously, this North Star is designed to apply to students and faculty, but as a Board we would do well to remember we’re included here as well. For me, having grown up in an Ottawa Jewish home where values were lived every day, and having attended the ancestor school to the OJCS (Hillel Academy), being an active parent at the school and member of its Board is the most natural and fitting next step in my inspiring Jewish journey with my young family.
- We Own Our Own Learning
Remembering that learning is best as a two-way street easily applies to the governing body of the school, as we work with all stakeholders to determine the best strategic routes forward. As each student in the school finds his or her respective passion and uses it as a platform for more in-depth study, so too do we as Board directors use our unique skills and interests to further the agenda of the organization as a whole. This blog is a perfect example – I wanted to use and hone my amateur writing skills, and I was able to do so while filling a void in the leadership ‘Blogosphere’ of the school.
- We Learn Better Together
It became clear through our work unpacking the North Stars that we, as a Board, do our best work when we brainstorm and discuss and work as a team and also when we incorporate ideas generated by other stakeholders in the process. Through this teamwork we all continue to learn how best to advance and follow through on the mission of the school. We, like the students and staff, do indeed need to continue learning (and do so together) to help us reach our ‘stars’. Similarly, we need to keep thinking large and reaching for the highest heights, together, to make real our dream of being the best school in Ottawa. I, for one, believe we can get there.
