Minutes from March 15, 2012 Trustee Meeting

Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School Trustee Meeting

Minutes of Meeting Conducted on March 15, 2012

(Trustee Meeting #8 of 2011-2012 School Year)

Trustees Attending Meeting: Joelle Kaufman, Sharon Hartley, Roger Feigelson, Madeline Benson, Caren Neydavoud, Amy Sosnick, Amy Sosnick, Yaniv Bensadon, Carrie Ridge, Larry Lustig. Shawn Becker, Sherry Lipson, Abbe Breitman, and Jeremy Verba.

RCWJDS Staff Attending Meeting: Barbara Gereboff and Fred Wiener.

Guest: Lisa Wachtel

Meeting Minutes:

Amy Sosnick delivered an eloquent D'var Torah.

A motion to approve minutes from the prior Trustee meeting passed unanimously.

Jeremy and Paul, concerned with heighten security in Israel, wanted to know how Wornick handles security.  Barbara invited security experts: Jane Post (associated exec director) of PJCC and two reps from the security firm, HiCom. Staff on campus participate in a lot of training,  Goal is to be prepared to address and deter any issues.  Drills and training occur regularly and they follow incident command model.  Received three government grants to enhance security.   Security committee meets every three months includes staff, police, Federation expert and other security experts.  Practices are not discussed outside of committee.  Campus considers the staff and security team as all part of security team.   Also share info with Palo Alto JCC. Security firm is the best and Campus did not want to save money on security so it chose the finest.

HiCom is based in SF and handles anything from high end security, events and exec protection, installation of systems, training, such as Israel in the Gardens, the Federation, Israeli consulate events, etc. They distinguish between preventative and reactive security.  They focus on preventative.  They can go into reactive if needed. 

Security is tested here 2 to 3 times a week, for years.  Having officers stake out campus as if planning to make sure security is constantly vigilant.

Lisa Wachtel briefed the Trustees re: the PTO.  Driven by the PTO in partnership with teachers and the school.  Lisa joined the PTO a couple of years ago with a keen interest in increasing Tikum Olam.   Objective is to slowly and steadily build and this is a work in process.

Barbara shared her vision of STEM in which to position science tech, mathematical center and attract professionals for a think tank to help develop best practices.  The goal is to ramp up a few of these areas in the next couple of years (first institute in a year and half).  

38 Acceptance letters went out for Kindergarten, and more families are interested in touring the School.

Barbara circulated the Accredidation Report and encouraged everyone to read it.

The Board then met in Executive Session. Items were discussed and questions asked and answered.

The meeting adjourned at 9:15PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Josh Smith

RCWJDS Board Secretary 2011-2012

April 17, 2012