The Solomon Schechter lower school in Cranford was closed due to decreasing enrollment.
August 28, 2008
Administrators of Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union say the vast majority of students and faculty from its shuttered Cranford school have migrated to its West Orange campus.
“Forty-seven of the 51 students who had been enrolled at Cranford for 2008-09 have switched to the West Orange campus,” said the campus’ lower school principal Gloria Kron. “More than 90 percent of the Cranford faculty also have transferred to West Orange.”
Kron said the school, which opens for the year on Sept. 3, will be all the richer thanks to the infusion of students and faculty from the Cranford campus.
Schechter closed the Cranford lower school in June in response to an escalating deficit and falling enrollment. The building is currently on the market.
While acknowledging the financial deficit, Kron stressed that the primary reason for the closure was decreasing enrollment due to the population shift in Union County.
The lower school now serves approximately 315 students with a faculty and staff of 60. In order to accommodate the 15 percent increase in student population, Schechter has added one section to each grade, from first through fifth.
“There are now three sections in each grade from one through four, and four sections in grade five. All classes consist of a mix of students from each campus. We are using every room in the building,” Kron said.
The school is offering bus transportation to the former Cranford students from a central location. Other Schechter students use school buses for their commute, Kron noted.
‘So friendly’
Last spring, the school took measures to ease the transition for students, parents, and faculty alike.
Cranford students came to the West Orange campus to mingle with their counterparts.
Solomon Schechter lower school principal Gloria Kron said measures were taken to make students’ transition from Cranford to West Orange as smooth as possible.
“We cheered them in the gymnasium and formed a joint lower school choir with singers from both campuses. The choir became our ‘music ambassadors,’ performing for the school and then walking into the audience to greet other students,” Kron said.
The school also took pains to set parents’ minds at ease. Many parents took advantage of Kron’s invitation to meet with her and tour the West Orange campus.
“Initially, they were very worried,” said Kron. “But by the time they left, you could visibly see the relief on their faces. ‘It’s so friendly here,’ one of them told me.
“During their visit, our Cranford parents saw firsthand that this was a good place for their children. They even appreciated that since it was a little larger, it offered the students more social variety.”
On the first day of school, a “New Parents Breakfast,” hosted by the Parents Association, will be held, and later in the semester, back-to-school nights will give parents the opportunity to meet with teachers and review the curriculum.
Kron said her aim is for the school to foster a warm, open atmosphere. “When you walk into the building, everyone — from receptionist, to custodian, to principal — greets you with friendly faces. My door is always open, and I get a lot of little faces saying hello to me every day.”
Kron also stressed that the Cranford faculty members who joined the West Orange team are equal partners. “We value their ideas and want to keep their areas of expertise intact.”
Cranford, for example, had instituted a Colonial Fair that now is being introduced to the entire West Orange lower school. Nineteen classes, instead of six, will visit the fair when it debuts in West Orange on Dec. 12.
Kron said she is planning a regular schedule of grade-level meetings for faculty to share ideas and teaching techniques.
The Schechter lower school had always had considered itself “one school with two campuses,” Kron said. They always had shared a common curriculum, culture, traditions, and values. So, she said, she expects the transition to be a smooth one.
At SSDS of Essex and Union, Kron said, “it’s all about relationships. The single most important thing in a school is the relationship between the adults; that sets the standard. Children here know that the adults are approachable. They may not always agree with you, but they respect your decision if you’re consistent.”
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