Administrative structure altered
In light of Laura Jacobs’ resignation as Assistant Principal, many administrators will assume new positions this year.
Along with the organization of nine teachers to serve as discipline advisers to the administration, Administrative Assistant Marilyn Davis has assumed attendance responsibilities and Assistant High School Dean for Academics Dr. Gill Cook is in charge of Professional Development, according to Interim Principal Roslyn Landy. Director of Admissions Robin Shapiro will oversee the disciplinary advisers, while the position of Assistant Principal—which formerly encompassed responsibilities from attendance to discipline—will not be filled until a new principal is hired.Landy remaining Interim Principal through 2003-2004
For the second year, Roslyn Landy will continue in her position as Interim Principal, doubling also as Dean of the Upper School.
The Board of Directors’ search is continuing, with candidates still being interviewed, but no replacement for former Principal Rabbi Reuven Greenvald has been selected, leaving the principal responsibilities to Landy.
Substance abuse booklet sent home
In pursuing the effort to educate parents and students about substance abuse, the administration and Guidance Department sent out an information booklet with facts about drug and alcohol abuse and teens.
According to Assistant High School Dean Marti Herskovitz, the packet was created by an organization called “Community of Concern,” which the school became a member of last May.
“The booklet was distributed at the spring substance abuse meeting and a parent suggested that we send it out to everyone because it is such a wonderful resource. Everyone should have this information,” Herskovitz said.
In addition, Upper and Lower School guidance counselors and physical education teachers met to review the health education curriculum throughout the school.
Those meetings dealt with identifying “what topics are being covered in each grade and what should be improved,” Herskovitz said.
As of now, no changes have been made to existent drug-related curricula such as the Human Development class, but Herskovitz said the group plans to meet again to “try to enhance the program we are already doing.”
Additional parent programming may be included in future programs, as the group intends to further educate parents about drugs and how to discuss drugs with children.
Student Life Coordinator seeks general ‘continuity’
by David Feith
New Student Life Coordinator Victoria Rothenberg is entering the school year hoping to make JDS an enjoyable environment for students without making major changes.
Rothenberg, who previously lived and worked in New York City at the Ramaz School, believes that it is “really important that there is continuity” for all students.
With her focus on smoothly carrying out already-existent programs, Rothenberg plans to keep Shabbatonim organized as they were last year, and is looking forward to school Trip Days in the autumn and spring.
Rothenberg commented that the system left by departed Student Life Coordinator Navah Kelman and the rest of the administration was one which successfully created a great environment for students, and while she will always be responsive to student opinion, she said, maintaining stability for students is her main goal.
Additionally, Rothenberg hopes to bring speakers to the school through the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA).
The PTA, Rothenberg believes, is an organization that can help the administration work smoothly in responding to student interests and opinion regarding school life.
The addition of Ultimate Frisbee as a varsity sport is another project Rothenberg says she will be taking on to improve student life.
The Ultimate Frisbee team, one of the school’s newest organizations, began practicing and competing in games last year under the direction of Jewish Texts teacher Paul Blank.
A dream many have but few fulfill, Jewish Texts teacher Paul Blank climbed Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, one of the world’s highest peaks, this summer.
The 1,489th climber to reach the summit this year, Blank made the climb “because there is something mystical and magical about the challenge.”
According to Blank, he was one of five climbers out of 12 to complete the climb.
Prior to this summer, Blank’s climbing experience included reaching the summit of Mount Kenya last summer.
That three-day climb was less challenging than his climb of Mount Kilimanjaro, Blank said, because he began climbing Mount Kenya from a higher point and hiked to a peak lower than that of Mount Kilimanjaro.
The climb of Kilimanjaro included “the toughest day of my life,” as Blank was unable to acclimatize himself near the top of the peak, having to hike the last 500 meters without knowing “which way was up and which was down,” he said.
Blank also noted that his hike up Mount Kenya, although less physically challenging, was more beautiful than the climb up Kilimanjaro. The peak of Kilimanjaro, Blank said, was small, whereas the summit of Mount Kenya was a “beautiful plateau.”
Spending the last two summers in Africa has made a serious impression on Blank, he said.
“The continent, despite all its problems—AIDS, primarily—is really coming into its own. There is a lot of optimism. [President] Bush’s trip was a big boost to the continent,” Blank, who was there during the President’s trip, said.
Blank hopes to involve the school community in the assisting Africa and plans to get his classes to help Africans suffering from AIDS by buying medications. He hopes that this project will give people the opportunity to “make a real difference to real people. This is a unique opportunity to save people.”
Rubinstein math proof published
After writing a mathematical proof for mere recreation, and upon Math teacher Ayana Touval’s suggestion, junior Daniel Rubinstein’s work was published by a prestigious mathematics magazine.
Mathematics Teacher Magazine published Rubinstein’s proof, which proved that the three medians of a triangle are concurrent, in its September issue, stating that his work correctly offered a new approach to a classically accepted method of proving the triangle theorem in question.
Rubinstein, who says he hopes to pursue a career in the mathematics field, was surprised and honored that his work received such acclaim.
Following the publication in Mathematics Teacher Magazine, the proof was used on a prominent Internet mathematics website, which was “really neat to see,” Rubinstein said.
Rubinstein does not think that this published proof is necessarily a first step to a career in mathematics, but he said that “it’s more of a cool, nice accomplishment to have on the side.”
EXPO project no longer included in eighth grade year
Due to changes made to the eighth grade History curriculum, eighth-graders will no longer create EXPO projects to culminate their studies that year.
EXPO, along with the Science Fair, had previously been a staple of the eighth grade year.
The EXPO projects had students study a global issue such as hunger or medicare extensively and present a project on it.
According to History teacher Michael Connell, the EXPO project’s focus on global contemporary issues has rendered its placement in the eighth grade curriculum outdated.
While the project used to fit within the Global Issues class, the eighth grade curriculum has recently been changed and now focuses students on government and economics.
The study of U.S. government and economics are fields which in past years had been covered during the study of American history, but which some people feared were not covered as extensively as they should have been.
The new curriculum will provide eighth grade students with “the background that is necessary in order to study world history when they enter the ninth grade,” Connell said.
According to Connell, instead of EXPO, students will participate in “election simulations, mock trials and will tie everything together with a Model Congress at the end of the year.”
Though no student will participate in the EXPO project this year, the History department hopes to reintroduce a more sophisticated version of the project in the 2004-2005 school year.
That project is slated to conclude the sophomores’ study of world history, which will now span two High School years much as the study of American history had in previous years.
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