Reinventing in hard times: Fairfield day school temporarily shuts its doors
By Cindy Mindell

By the time Hillel Academy in Fairfield ended the school year on June 18, the board had announced its decision to close down for a year-long restructuring. “The school was in trouble,” says Miles Ehrenkranz, who was hired at the time to direct the effort. Enrollment was steady but falling, several teachers had left or taken pay cuts over the year, and the school was $40,000 in the red.

For nearly half a century, Hillel Academy has served a diverse population of Jewish students throughout Fairfield and New Haven counties, from pre-K through eighth grade. The Modern Orthodox school has become known as a small but mighty presence at science fairs throughout the state and region, with elementary and middle-school students consistently taking home top prizes.
Rabbi Chagie Rubin took over this year as principal. A veteran day school director, Rubin came to the area six years ago as fulltime coordinator of outreach and fundraising for the then-fledgling Yeshiva Gedola of Bridgeport. In 2008, with many yeshiva families sending their children to Hillel Academy, Rubin took on the additional role of principal of Judaic studies and head of recruitment for the day school. At the time, the school was already showing financial duress. This year, he moved to Hillel fulltime.
“The school’s makeup had shifted from a Modern Orthodox focus, not because we wanted to, but because our Modern Orthodox families were moving away to other day schools in the region,” Rubin says. “My strategy was to cultivate and get whatever families we could cater to. The families we attracted were from the yeshiva and Lubavitch communities in Fairfield County and New Haven area, and they were all comfortable here.”
Rubin grew the student body to 32. But two economic factors weakened the viability of the school, Rubin says. Most students required financial aid, and the yeshiva suffered financial problems, forcing many of its employers with young children to leave the area. While the school was able to secure funding from local foundations and Torah Umesorah, the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools, the Jewish Federations in Bridgeport and New Haven could not provide enough to make up the deficit. Hillel Academy is a beneficiary organization of the UJA/Federation of Eastern Fairfield County, which only funds students from its catchment area, Rubin says, and the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven does not make allocations to day schools outside its community.
To help alleviate Hillel Academy’s debt, the building’s owner, Congregation Agudas Achim, rented out the school facility to a new magnet school for the second half of the year, temporarily moving the Hillel classrooms into the synagogue. But that made some parents uncomfortable, says David Levy, whose two children were in the Hillel preschool.
Ehrenkranz and school president Adam Breiner met with parents to explain the restructuring plan and to help them find alternatives for this academic year.
“This past year was disorganized, with people being put into positions at the last minute who weren’t qualified for the role,” says Levy. “We understood the instability the school was experiencing and still put our kids in as a show of support. “We loved everyone there. Nothing wrong was going on, but there was too much instability and lack of structure to be a successful year.”
David Levy’s kids have relocated to Southern Connecticut Hebrew Academy along with most of the other former Hillel students. “They have been very accommodating and helped our kids adjust,” he says. “They are happy there.”
“It was a great year for my kids,” says Shoshanna Stock, a parent and language and speech pathologist who was recruited to help out this year in the face of a teacher shortage. “They enjoyed the individualized learning atmosphere and the close-knit environment. Rabbi Rubin and the longtime teaching staff, really put their hearts into it and kept it going for the sake of the community. We didn’t regret it. My kids are better for having gone.”

“We’re proud that we were able to keep the school going for two additional years and the children there were given a very good education in Judaic and general studies,” Rubin says.
Both Levy and Stock say that they would bring their kids back to Hillel next year if the school proves that it has restructured successfully. “They have an amazing building and location, and a lot of potential,” Levy says.
Ehrenkranz says that the plan is to work closely with the leadership of the new, pluralistic Jewish High School of Connecticut in order to turn Hillel Academy into a feeder school. The board will invest in infrastructure and experienced teaching staff, he says, and is updating the school’s mission statement and seeking ways to make the school a more active part of the larger community.
“The biggest problem is that people didn’t understand that Hillel Academy has always been open to Jewish students of all backgrounds,” he says. “Now it has a big yeshiva community, but the original mission statement was always inclusive and still is. Our goal is to provide a fantastic education, both secular and religious, and we are open to every single Jewish entity. Our message is, ‘If you’re Jewish, we have an education for you.'”

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